“In recent years, Portugal has written an impressive economic success story. What a recovery after the difficult years of economic and financial crisis!”, declared Olaf Scholz at the opening ceremony of the Hannover fair, where he arrived accompanied by the Prime Minister António Costa.

Smartphones and Surfboards

With the Portuguese prime minister listening to him in the audience, the German chancellor stressed that Portugal “has made great progress in technology, digitalisation and energy transition”.

“Lisbon has become one of the European epicenters for start-ups and digital nomads around the world. ‘Smartphones and surfboards’: it’s a combination that works,” he said.

Addressing António Costa directly, Scholz said that the executives led by the Portuguese prime minister have “invested massively in Portugal’s innovative capacity, with leading research institutes, such as the Fraunhofer Institute, being attracted to Portugal”.

“Over the last few years, numerous new cooperations between companies have emerged: more than 600 German companies are already active in Portugal. Not only are large international companies such as Volkswagen, Bosch, Siemens and Continental, but also small and medium-sized companies. This is due to the good climate they find in Portugal, both for investing and for vacationing”, he added.