Surplus in the balance of technology services decreased in 2014 … – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

The Deimos, a Portuguese space engineering company (which is part of a multinacinal group with the same name) works with the European Space Agency virtually since it was founded 13 years ago. The international crisis has complicated the business, a sector where large customers are public and are dependent on the financial health of states. But in recent years, Deimos is growing again.

                     

                         “In the more acute the crisis years, we have reduced a little [turnover]. Since 2012, we grew about 15% to 20%, “says the director, Ávila Nuno Martins. The company has 40 people and develops software , such as navigation systems and autopilots, and makes schedules of space missions. Also works in other areas – for example, developed a navigation module for Ara project, Google. The Ara is a mobile phone concept where the various components (display, camera, battery, processor, GPS) can be replaced and matched by the user.

The Deimos turnover last year 3.5 million euros – just about everything out of the country. “This year should be a little better,” anticipates Nuno Ávila, which justifies the optimism: “There is a strong European pillar in [sector] space and there are large investments to be made”

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In Portugal, the exports of technological services, such as those providing Deimos, are rising since 2010, when it had been dropped. But 2014 was the first year of the decade in which the balance of the technological balance of payments fell due to increased imports, the rise in sales was not able to keep up.

The balance of technological balance of payments is the difference between exports and imports of services in this area, particularly in areas such as rights to acquire and use patents, trademarks, technical assistance and industrial research and development services. Last year, exports amounting to 1 453 million euros allowed a positive balance of 195 million, which means a decline of 7% in annual terms. The numbers are the Bank of Portugal and compiled by Pordata database.

In these accounts, the years 2010 and 2011 had ended with negative balances. In 2012, the first full year under the international assistance program, gave up a return to a positive balance. But the result was due more to falling purchases from abroad than the increase in sales.

“The high-tech sector Portuguese developed much around the services, which also reflected the difficulty of exporting, “says economist Lino Fernandes, adding that” this is something that can change “with the expansion of the Port of Sines. He says he was optimistic about the possibility of exports based on Portuguese technology: “If we take the know-how we have developed in the form of software, if we can take that engineering capability and get her in products … We have to free ourselves of this idea that we can only survive doing cheaper. “