AICEP Forum exposes Portugal’s technological potential to the US market
Tthis is the 5th edition of the ‘Portugal Economic Forum’ which, after a two-year break due to the covid-19 pandemic, returned in force with three panels dedicated to various aspects of technology, with about a dozen speakers from renowned companies.
The first panel, called “From Startup to Unicorn” and moderated by Carolina Rendeiro, founder of Connect2Global, focused on the journey of companies from their inception to becoming Unicorns, that is, when they reach a market value of over 1,000 million of dollars without being on the stock exchange.
The panel was composed by Marcelo Lebre, co-founder of the company Remote, and by Tim Ferriss, an ‘angel investor’ – who makes investments with his own capital in companies with high growth potential, such as startups -, who shared their experiences and challenges they faced.
“Portugal — the new home of Global Tech” was the theme of the second panel, which was moderated by Yvonne Rothschild, executive director of EACCNY, and by Luís Henriques, president of AICEP; Maria Saldanha, Mastercard’s country manager in Portugal; Silvia Bechmann, CEO of Mercedes-Benz.io and who leads the Portuguese operation and the remaining markets from Portugal.
This panel aimed to show the reasons that led these companies to establish themselves as their operations in Portugal, identifying the advantages that led to success.
The focused on the “Fuo of the same artificial intelligence” and the last of the same in our working panel and in its fieldidian to share as views on the impact on privacy issues, as far as their workforce and their data privacy’ .
Defined.ai founder Daniela Braga; JP Morgan Chase’s head of artificial intelligence investigation Manuela Veloso; the president of the Armis Group, Carlos Costa; and the co-founder of Unbabel, Vasco Pedro, were the speakers on a panel moderated by Matthew Hutson, from The New Yorker magazine.
Speaking to Lusa, the president of AICEP explained that “talent” is the word that best defines Portugal.
“Portugal has managed to demonstrate in recent years the type of talent that is absolutely differentiating for various sectors, but above all for the high technology sector and the development of ‘software'”, said Luís Henriques.
“Everyone to recognize that Portugal has talent and that there is something else that is fundamental to enhance this even more: it is a country that welcomes people very well. (…) that there is talent in the world and, therefore, Portugal is very well positioned to continue to evolve in the technology sector, in the services sector and competence centers, but also in the services industry”, he stressed.
In the audience were the arrivals of Portuguese airlines who work in the sector in associations or American companies, as well as representatives of Portuguese airlines.
“Our main objective is to spread the message of the destination in Portugal. Financial sector, through the headquarters outside the financial world. Therefore, our focus is this and it is a meeting that was worth keeping”, said the president of AICEP .
Other points that differentiate Portugal from competing countries is the fact that “most young Portuguese speak at least two foreign languages”, underlined Luís Henriques.
“This generation that is already proven for the market is now not highly proven (…) and we are not afraid, because it is the international rankings that prove it. It is the foreign investor clients that prove it. But this is a factor where we we are for the positive, but we compete with others.
The main foreign language that young Portuguese people speak is English, and then in the United States they speak a lot, which helps a lot. (…) It is particularly convenient for a young Portuguese not to speak like a French person or a co-worker who is in France.
The ‘Portugal Economic Forum’ of this outline was also attended by the Secretary of State for Internationalization, Bernardo Ivo Cruz, the Portuguese ambassador to Washington, Francisco Duarte Lopes, the AICEP delegate in the United States, João Mota Pinto, and the consul – General of Portugal in New York, Luisa Pais Lowe.
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