The Minister of Economy has just announced, at a conference in Albufeira, the reinforcement of 30 million euros in the budget of “Linha+Algarve”, focused on the «requalification of tourist assets».
António Costa Silva was speaking as part of the conference commemorating World Tourism Day, which is taking place at the Hotel NAU Salgados, in Albufeira.
This reinforcement of 30 million comes after the previous budget was exhausted and is intended, until 2025, to continue supporting investment projects developed by companies in the tourism sector in the Algarve region, mainly focusing on the requalification of tourist assets.
In this line, credit sharing is 75% from Turismo de Portugal and 25% from banks. The maximum repayment period is 15 years, including a four-year grace period.
This support line is part of a package of measures that the Government announced on World Tourism Day and which total 100 million euros (50 million for the Tourism+Sustainable Line, 20 million for the Tourism+Growth Line and the such a 30 million reinforcement of Linha+Algarve).
In his speech, António Costa Silva took the opportunity to highlight the role of «companies as a central engine of the development and transformation of the Portuguese economy».
«We are always open to listening to them and fighting to have financing lines that help companies», he considered.
The beginning of this conference – which will be attended by the President of the Republic at the end –, It was also marked by a protest by the Algarve Hotel Industry Union, outside the Hotel NAU Salgados.
Questioned by journalists, the Minister of Economy acknowledged that salaries are a “concern”.
«We have to be sensitive to work performance. If there are people who are not receiving adequate salaries, it is obviously a concern, but I would also like to highlight that there is data that we must take into account: the wage bill declared at the end of 2022 was 58 billion euros, the that had never happened in history».
«We have an agreement with all partners to increase salaries by 20% by 2026 and, from 2015 to 2022, the minimum salary increased by 50% and the average by 24%», he concluded.
Comments