“Portugal is considered an essential center for the development of French companies in Europe, because Portugal is one of the countries with the highest growth rate of between 6 and 7% this year, and many companies also want to develop in Portuguese-speaking markets, as it is a platform,” explained Richard Gomes, Director of Business France. In Portugal and Spain, in statements to the newspaper Lusa, “the rest of the Portuguese-speaking countries.”
Business France is equivalent to AICEP in Portugal, being an official body of the Gaelic administration with around 70 offices around the world to promote French companies and investments in France.
The Business Forum, which is held in the French Senate in Paris, is an initiative of the Business France Foundation, which falls within the framework of the Crusades season between France and Portugal, and which has worked since February to bring the two countries closer together.
“special relationship”
“There is a special relationship between France and Portugal and it is an opportunity to develop relations between the two countries, by searching for complementarity whether in the environment, in technology or in relations between people, and in the Senate, it is important to show this. “Connection to the regions that develop thanks to the cooperation of our companies,” This was announced by Louis-Jean de Nicolay, Senator for Sarthe and Chairman of the France-Portugal Friendship Group in the Senate.
With France positioning itself as Portugal’s second customer for goods and number one in terms of services, French entrepreneurs are now looking for new opportunities, especially through the recovery and resilience plan and by investing in partnerships with national companies.
Richard Gomez explained, “French companies are not only looking for a distributor or supplier in Portugal, but are looking for technological or financial partnerships and even in third countries, such as Brazil.”