The sea and tourism were winning bets from the Algarve's Regional Strategy for Intelligent Specialization (RIS3) and, now, the region is preparing for the future, making a consultation before the new community programme.
RIS3, which defined as priorities the domains of tourism, sea, agri-food, renewable energies, health, ICT and Cultural and Creative Industries, was the central theme of a seminar held last Wednesday, November 14, at the Auditorium Albufeira Municipal Council, which brought together public entities, associations and companies.
interviewed by Sul Informação, on the sidelines of the conference, Francisco Serra, president of the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), said that this is the time to «take stock» of how RIS3 went.
“It is our expectation that, in the future, regions will have to come up with some sort of option to justify the funds. For the Algarve, we are figuring out whether we should add innovation to the strategy or change the proportions of the sector's bets or, still, bet on new concepts», he explained.
«It is already known that the Government has proposed areas of specialization, related to major themes such as climate change or migration, with which we are aligned. We are holding a series of sessions, where we have already asked for collaboration from citizens, to understand if there are priorities that they deem important”, he added.
According to Francisco Serra, in the region «there are differentiating proposals, based on the valorization of identity and its own culture. Basically, an idea of innovation and competitiveness, associated with knowledge and the ecological. We want competitiveness, but not at any cost».
Taking stock of RIS3, tourism and the sea were the areas where there were more projects and more funding. In other words: «the RIS3 anchor sectors are strongly represented».
If, in terms of the number of projects, tourism had the most, in terms of financing, it was the sea that obtained a larger share, equivalent to close to 8 million euros.
For Francisco Serra, these are «consolidated sectors, which will push for the dynamism of the economy in the next few years». As for the other areas of RIS3, defined as priorities, “an additional dynamism was desired, but this has not been proven so far”.
What is certain is that, for the president of the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development, the Algarve needs to find “other sources of financing”, in addition to community funds.
“As we are considered a transition region, there is not the same level of support. It may happen that we are unable to find funding sources that allow us to make the large investments that we want to implement», lamented Francisco Serra.
One of the solutions can be through the State Budget. «The Algarve contributes to the national wealth and, therefore, expects a certain solidarity to eliminate any shortcomings», he considered. But that's not what has happened, as he lamented José Carlos Barros, deputy of the PSD, recently.
This seminar in Albufeira also served to bring together the Algarve Regional Innovation Council (CIRA), an advisory body that brings together representatives of public entities, associations, companies and academia, within the scope of the Regional Strategy for Intelligent Specialization (RIS3 Algarve) .
Nelson de Souza, Secretary of State for Development and Cohesion, participated in this meeting, where he gave a «very positive assessment» of Portugal 2020.
«In terms of execution, we have 77% of the budget committed and 30% executed, which places Portugal as the country with the highest level of execution at European level, among the countries that have similar financial packages, above 5 billion euros ", he said.
The Algarve, on the other hand, "has a specific program, with commitment and execution rates of around 60% and 17%, respectively, which places the region in line with other regional operational programs on the continent," said the official.
Nelson Souza also challenged the participants to "get involved in the elaboration of the post-2020 strategy and to look for new forms of financing, in addition to European Union funds".
During the CIRA meeting, promoted by the CCDR Algarve's Regional Dynamics Monitoring Body, the creation of two new working groups in the thematic domains of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Cultural and Creative Industries (ICC) was approved , thus completing the governance model of RIS3 Algarve.
CIRA's specific mission is to monitor and streamline the execution of the Regional Strategy for Smart Specialization (RIS3 Algarve).
The seminar also served to present innovative projects supported by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in areas defined as priorities by RIS3.
The session ended with speeches by Alexandre Almeida, from the National Innovation Agency (ANI), and António Sampaio Ramos, from the Agency for Development and Cohesion (AD&C), who spoke about the future of European funds and prospects for the development of public policies for innovation and competitiveness.
Photos: Pablo Sabater | Sul Informação
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