‘the Bali of Europe’ – The Jornal Económico
In recent years, Portugal’s progress in terms of digital transformation is undeniable. The combination of public policy priorities with business dynamics in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship has contributed to accelerating this transformation, placing our country at the forefront in European terms.
This is confirmed by the results of the European Commission report on the digital economy (Digital Economy and Society Index 2021) published this month, which highlights the evolution of Portugal in the European context, now occupying the 16th position. Although there is still a lot to do in some areas (namely in the skills of the population), Portugal’s good performance should be highlighted in areas such as adherence to high-speed broadband (3rd place), electronic commerce in small and medium-sized companies ( 4th place) in the availability of online public services.
This evolution obviously brings greater international visibility to what it does in Portugal – benefiting our companies, technological infrastructures or as higher education institutions – with our country being a growing destination for testing and experimenting with new technologies. It is no coincidence that one of the biggest world events in areas – a Web Summit – takes place in Portugal.
Hmm study published this month by GEE – Strategy and Studies Office highlights the impact of the Web Summit on the national economy, both in macroeconomic terms and in terms of the empowerment of our entrepreneurship ecosystem. While many of the effects will only work in the long term, they are notorious as networking dynamics and networking, essential to promote our beginners with investors and in international markets, but also the projection of the country’s image in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation.
The study also highlights the impact on the attraction of investments to Portugal in the technological and digital areas in recent years and, consequently, of new talents (highly qualified human resources). In fact, Portugal is increasingly an attractive country for the so-called “digital nomads” who, according to the literature on the subject, can define as people with mobile professional lives.
According to a recent investigation published in Global Networks magazine (Home Sweet Home: Creating a Sense of Place in Globally Mobile Work Lives), as conditions and as characteristics of a country (or of a city or region) are decisive for the construction of the life project of the “digital nomads” who, supported by digital technologies, develop their work while maintaining relationships with their most distant family members.
Portugal is increasingly a preferred destination for skilled workers with this new lifestyle, as the site attests thebrokebackpacker, which simply says “It seems that Portugal has become the Bali of Europe when it comes to nomadic digital base stations”, highlighting Lisbon, Porto and Madeira as preferred locations. Better than Bali I would say!