Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) lost 350,000 jobs between 2008 and 2013, a 13.5% reduction in five years, the European Commission has reported.
On a more positive note, the Economy Minister Pires de Lima speaking in Vilamoura this weekend pointed to last year’s creation 35,000 companies, saying that this entrepreneurship is the way forward.
Brussels says that Portugal’s SMEs have limited access to financing and public contracts which hamper their growth. This has been a constant complaint during the recession as banks hoard their cash to shore up their battered balance sheets.
In 2013 there were over 774,000 SMEs in Portugal employing 2.26 million people and generating €44 million in added value for the economy.
The finance minister said ths weekend that both entrepreneurship and the credibility of Portugal have been instrumental in the recovery of the economy and pointed to the 35,000 new companies created last year rather than dwell on the last five years where government policy is in part to blame for the collapse of so many small businesses.
Pires de Lima was speaking at the Business Forum Algarve in Vilamoura on the topic "The paths of growth for Portugal" and said the road to recovery is through attracting investment and by convincing the Portuguese and international capital suppliers that Portugal is ideally positioned to build business bridges with Africa and the Americas.
The Economy Minister pointed to tax simplification for small and very small businesses and of reducing corporate tax rates on profits, talking of a unique package of company incentive already in places to attract investment .
Pedro Passos Coelho fared worse in the Algarve as he was met in Faro with protestors gathered at the headquarters of the support center for the homeless, which the Prime Minister was visiting.
The protesters were clear in their demand which was singular, the resignation of the government.
"It takes huge nerve and deep hypocrisy by the prime minister to come here. He was the prime minister who has created more homelessness than in the past 40 years of democracy in Portugal and he is the Prime Minister that has destroyed social policies," according to an Algarve trade unionist who added that Passos Coelho also "is destroying jobs, is destroying the economy, is destroying the future of the Portuguese." "Therefore, we are here to protest against his presence and of course are demand his resignation.”
The prime minister had an easier time at the ABOIM childrens home in Faro where he commented that the time it takes to process adoptions in Portugal is not exactly ideal for children, adding that "very soon" changes to the legal framework for adoption will be submitted to parliament and he admitted that it is necessary to simplify the adoption mechanisms.
