Regional Government debates Macaronesia in São Miguel and Flores through Integra project
Ponta Delgada
Subsecretário Regional da Presidência
The Regional Government, through the Office of the Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency, is promoting a meeting of the Integra project and the colloquium "Macaronesia: Cooperation Strategies for Economic, Social and Cultural Development" from October 4 to 6 in São Miguel and Flores.
The works begin in Furnas on October 4 at 9:30 am with the opening session of the colloquium. The event will be attended by the Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency, Pedro de Faria e Castro, the President of the Azores Branch of the Portuguese Association of Economists, Francisco Bettencourt, representatives of the Regional Governments of Madeira, the Canary Islands and São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Honorary Consul of Cape Verde to the Canary Islands.
The opening conference of this colloquium, organised in partnership with the Azores Association of Economists, will feature speeches by Ivo Sousa, director of the Regional Statistics Service of the Azores, and António Rebelo de Sousa, vice-president of the Portuguese Association of Economists. They will respectively address the analysis/interpretation of current economic indicators for each region, with a view to identifying cooperation strategies for the economic, social and cultural development of the regions, and the theme of Macaronesia in a new European integration vision.
The programme of the colloquium includes three panels on "The importance of transport in the outermost regions," "Sustainable tourism: progress in each archipelago" and "Optimising endogenous resources through innovation." They will feature a number of speakers from the various participating regions as well as guest speakers from the Portuguese Association of Economists and the banking sector, particularly the World Bank. All the panels will be followed by a session for debate among participants.
On October 5, the meeting of the Integra project (Programme for the Integration of Markets and Regional Economic and Social Development in Macaronesia) will take place on the island of Flores. The first day of the works will be dedicated to the exchange of greetings with the mayors of Lajes das Flores and Santa Cruz das Flores and will include a technical visit to the Santa Cruz Port and the Lajes Port.
On October 6, the Integra project partners - Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cape Verde - will meet for a guided tour to the Flores Museum.
The Integra project is part of the Interreg Mac 2014-2020 Territorial Cooperation Programme and aims to strengthen institutional cooperation between the four regions of Macaronesia by developing a joint strategy in various areas of economic, social and cultural development. It also intends to develop strategic sectors with high added value, such as the blue economy, sustainable tourism, R&D and energy, among others by identifying the sectors with the greatest potential, which are capable of generating employment and wealth in each of the regions as well as throughout Macaronesia.
