CCDR wants to inject 50 million euros of European funds into the Algarve economy by the end of 2021

José Apolinário, the recently sworn in president of the CCDR of the Algarve, took stock of the execution of community funds for the region

José Apolinário, president of the CCDR do Algarve – Photo: Hugo Rodrigues | Sul Informação

Achieving a level of execution of «58% to 60%» of the CRESC Algarve 2020 Operational Program (OP) by the end of the year and, in practice, injecting another 50 million European funds into the Algarve economy was the major goal for 2021 assumed today by José Apolinário, the newly sworn in president of the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), in a meeting with journalists.

Until recently, the Secretary of State for Fisheries called the media to take stock of the execution of PO CRESC Algarve 2020, a rendering of accounts that he says will be carried out «every 60 days».

According to the most recent data, 1313 operations/projects have already been approved, with an expected contribution of 286 million euros. This means that the commitment rate of European funds destined for the Algarve is currently 89,95% – CRESC Algarve 2020 has a total budget of 318 million euros.

Of these approved projects, 42,13% have already been implemented and received the corresponding contribution.

It is this amount that José Apolinário wants to grow substantially by the end of the year.

“We want to reach 58 to 60% by the end of 2021. In other words, we want to increase the execution of the regional OP by 50 million”, according to José Apolinário.

However, and only in the last two months, the team led by José Apolinário managed to increase the execution rate from 39 to 42,13%.

“There was a very important effort by public entities and economic agents to execute funds. Above all, we want this money to reach companies», said José Apolinário.

 

CCDR Algarve headquarters, in Faro – Photo: Pablo Sabater | Sul Informação

 

Still, this is not a low number, considering that we are talking about the 2014/20 Community Support Framework?

“The current execution is in line with the previous framework and other regional operational programs. However, we recognize that we have to speed up execution. And this will be one of our main focuses this year», guaranteed José Apolinário.

However, he stressed, the CRESC Algarve 2020 funds "may be executed by the end of 2023".

According to the president of CCDR Algarve, «from the point of view of public investments, there is a set of procedures that sometimes lead to delays in the launch of the tenders themselves».

“What we are doing is, in the case of municipalities, to work directly with the 16 Algarve Councils and, in the case of public entities, is to try to understand where the problems are and try to contribute to their resolution”, he explained.

With regard to the private sector, “in the first phase of the current support framework, there was greater execution by the private sector”.

"Now, there has been a decrease, so we will have to do a more thorough analysis, to know which ones are, in fact, to go forward and which ones will have to be carried over to the next funding period", he revealed.

In the end, it is all about measuring, after all, how much money there is still to commit to projects, which are intended to be “oriented towards the diversification of the region's economic base”.

«The great challenge for the coming years is to invest more in innovation and science, as well as in improving the context of companies», believes the president of the Algarve CCDR.

This last purpose involves, for example, "lowering the energy cost or improving access to the Internet", namely within the region, to make it easier to attract companies that do not have direct or indirect links to tourism.

 

 

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