Loulé, with the Loulé Criativo project, is the Municipality of the Year 2016 in the Algarve region. The awards ceremony for the Municipality of the Year took place yesterday afternoon, in Sagres, but this time, the award at national level did not stay in the Algarve region and Vila do Bispo, which won in 2015, "passed the witness" to Fund.
«Lagos on the Active Aging Route», of the municipality of Lagos, «Creative Loulé», from Loulé, Titmouse Project, Albufeira, and the «Project Green Cork|Environmental Education in an educational and community context», in Lagoa, were the Algarvian projects nominated for the award and, in the regional competition, Loulé was the winning Municipality.
The city of Loulé competed for the national award with the remaining eight regional winners, but the Fundão project “Academias de Code” won, succeeding Vila do Bispo, who got the award in 2015 with the Sagres Bird Watching & Nature Activities Festival.
Forte do Beliche hosted the ceremony that brought together representatives of the 36 finalist municipalities and singer Luís Represas opened the ceremony, interpreting the theme “Sagres”, with the fortress and the sea as a “background”.
The Assistant Secretary of State and Environment was expected to be present, but the member of the Government did not attend.
After host Adelino Soares gave the welcome speech to Sagres, the president of Plataforma UM Cidades, which promotes this award, which is now in its 3rd edition, received on stage all the representatives of the nominated municipalities. Afterwards, the winners began to be revealed, after a short video presentation of all projects.
One by one, the representatives and mayors of the winning municipalities took the stage and it was up to Júlio Sousa, director of the Department of Education and Sociocultural Development of the Câmara de Loulé, to receive the regional award from the hands of Luís Represas.
Then came the most awaited moment. With the list reduced to nine potential candidates for Municipality of the University of Minho revealed the project – and the municipality – winner.
Fundão's project, which put the unemployed to learn to program, was what convinced the judges.
«Three and a half years ago, there were four IT engineers in the municipality of Fundão and they worked at the Chamber. The county was known for its cherry, but we wanted to attract IT companies. We now have 500 jobs in the ICT area and, by the end of 2017, we will have 1000 people working in ICT in Fundão», explained Chamber president Paulo Fernandes.
The initiative has also allowed for the creation of a Software Development Center with 12 companies.
Promoted by the University of Minho, the “Municipality of the Year Portugal 2016” Awards aim to recognize and reward good practices in projects implemented by municipalities with significant impacts on the territory, economy and society, which promote growth, inclusion and/ or sustainability.
The complete list of winners by region:
Porto Metropolitan Area: Arouca
Lisbon Metropolitan Area: Lisbon
Northern Region – Vila Nova de Famalicao
Northern Region (with less than 20 thousand inhabitants) – Customs of Faith
Central Region – Fundão
Central Region (with less than 20 thousand inhabitants) - Battle
Alentejo region – Santarem
Algarve Region – Loulé
Autonomous regions – Praia da Vitoria
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