This decade has been significant growth in the export of technological products. Sales to high-tech goods abroad increased by 53% over the last five years, and 9% over 2014. In both cases, it was faster than the total exports.
High-tech products are a classification that encompasses distant activities, ranging from electrical machinery aerospace, passing by the pharmaceutical industry and scientific instruments. The growth phenomenon can not be explained only by the economic crisis of the country and the need for companies to seek new markets. The figures also reflect the return of development and investment in previous years, especially in areas where the arrival to commercialization is a long process.
In the past year, were exported 1736 million of high-tech goods, billion of which were sold within the European Union, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). The weight of these goods in total exports has also been growing, although it represents a very small share of total sales:. 3.6% in 2014, slightly above 3% in the early
Economist Lino Fernandes, who presided for 11 years the Innovation Agency (a state entity which promotes links between research and the business world), says he is not surprised at the growth. “The economy is gone modernizing. What I know of companies that I know is that several of them have been greatly increase the export “. But points out that one of the good news is that these exports are no longer just the result of industrial production, but development done in Portugal. “These technology companies already have research here. Before it was more manufacturing. Now, there is much activity that is not only fitting, it is not only hand-cheap labor, are sectors with development done here. “
The electronic and telecommunications are by far the most important in high-tech exports, accounting for nearly half the total. But the greatest growth in 2014 occurred in the area of pharmaceuticals, which rose 26% to 159 million, equivalent to 9% of all such exports. Second on the list of the largest annual increases comes the aerospace sector.
The chief executive of pharmaceutical Bial, António Portela, said the Portuguese crisis does not explain the company’s exports, which accounted for nearly 60% of about 205 million euros billed last year. “In our particular case, being a bet on product innovation, we started making a big investment in the year 1990. With or without crisis, this is the result of that bet.”
In the same vein, Joaquim Cunha, Director of the Health Cluster Portugal, an association of healthcare companies, reports that international trade sector is “the result of a continuous work for several years.” But this, say, join the “positive effects” of the crisis. “Companies felt too tight in the domestic market and this forced them to find alternatives.”
In the pharmaceutical sector, the time to market is a complex and lengthy process. Medicines have to pass several tests and regulatory approvals. “It took us about 12 years to reach Europe and a little more to reach the US,” recalls António Portela.
Research in Bial began to be made by a team of three people. Today, the round 100. “When we started the research and development department, not soon discovered the first molecules. We synthesized these years 15 000 new molecules. Only one hit the market, “he says. The executive also praises the health sector companies in Portugal: “It is extraordinary what is happening in health in terms of exports, because these are difficult areas to enter. The effort of Portuguese companies is consolidated, have a good foundation. “
Aerospace off
The sector aerospace, the second fastest growing in 2014, saw exports rise 18% over 2014, eventually adding 70 million euros, according to figures from the INE. They represent, however, slightly less than 4% of technological goods sales.
The great leap in this area, which has been in decline at the beginning of the decade, had already happened in the previous year, coinciding with the opening in Évora, two factories Embraer, a Brazilian multinational aircraft manufacturer.
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