Prime - Programa de Incentivos à Modernização da Economia

PRIME - Incentives Programme for the Modernisation of Economic Activities was instituted by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 101/2003, of 8 of August, after its formal approval by the European Commission at 14 of May of 2003. It integrates a set of medium term economic policy instruments for the period 2000-2006. Those instruments were designed for Industry, Energy, Building Industry, Transport, Tourism, and trade and services sectors.

The Programme is integrated in Area 2 of the Regional Development Plan – “Adjusting the Production Profile towards the Activities of the Future”, and was designed to foster the productivity and competitiveness of Portuguese enterprises, and to promote new development capabilities.

The Programme objectives are: to ensure a generally sound competition environment, which may contribute to revitalise business structure, and to mainstream research and development on new products and production methods in the enterprises; to simplify procedures and red tape, and to stimulate de-regulation; to encourage the qualification of human resources, by enhancing technical and scientific training, and fostering productivity growth, through more motivating and rewarding tasks.

PRIME develops along the following priority areas of strategic action:

Area 1 – Enterprise Stimulation;
Area 2 – Qualification of Human Resources;
Area 3 – Stimulation of the Business Environment .

The two first Areas are dedicated to a direct intervention at enterprise level, and the third, of a more crosscutting nature, aims at stimulating business environment.

Directly linked to the modernisation and innovation processes, human resources qualification – both within enterprises and within support structures – is relevant throughout all three Areas. However, Area 2 includes a Measure that combines all the actions to be financed by the ERF (European Social Fund) . It is unquestionably a priority area for the accomplishment of the Programme and its objectives.

Therefore, all three Areas will define PRIME intervention, according to the various target audiences. In short, emphasis will be put on:

• Supporting national added-value generating investment;

• Fostering risk capital;

• Reinforcing SMEs (Small and Medium Entreprises) own capital;

• Promoting Portuguese enterprises, products and tourism;

• Supporting innovation, research and technological development;

• Encouraging human resources qualification within SMEs.

The following goals were established for each strategic Area:

Area 1 – Enterprise Stimulation

• Supporting business investment, by encouraging added-value generation, and productivity growth;

• Promoting modern management practices, and marketing networks;

• Promoting the reinforcement of skills and technological procedures;

• Promoting R&TD (Research and Technological Development) activities, by recognising the value of R&TD results and encouraging their local development;

• Promoting innovation, stimulating new initiatives, and mobilising new entrepreneurs;

• Promoting the use of the industrial property system, by encouraging investment in complex competitiveness factors, linked to distinctive features of enterprises or products (trademarks, drawings or models) and to technological innovation;

• Reinforcing business co-operation;

• Fostering a better use of energy potential and sounder energy consumption.

Area 2 – Qualification of Human Resources

• Matching workers’ qualifications and skills with the new needs of enterprises and business associations;

• Developing and reinforcing human resources skills, through the implementation of active policy measures, following the identification of system/market weaknesses;

• Promoting the qualification of level 3 and level 4 specialised executives;

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• To foster the renewal of commercial entrepreneurs;

• To modernise and to reinforce the stimulating role played by commerce and services in rural and urban centres.

Services

• To promote the development of an integrated services offer, capable of increasing the quality and diversity of the sector offer, and contributing to reinforce the capacities of services enterprises;

• To promote the delivery of support services to commercial and industrial companies, namely in the areas of logistics and distribution;

• To promote a qualified offer of services to enterprises, namely in the organisational, management, information, accounting and taxation, and control areas;

• To support human resources vocational training, in order to reinforce qualifications and skills;

• To foster the integration of ex ante and after-sales assistance services within the enterprises.

Tourism

• To promote and reinforce the competitiveness of enterprises in the Tourism sector, by encouraging the development of strategies aimed at increasing their technical and technological capacities, as well as their negotiation ability within the value chain of the sector;

• To support the emergence of new business areas that can foster the development of new tourism products. Those products are to be based on the existing potentialities and/or must contribute to the reinforcement of regional cohesion, by taking advantage of and giving a value to new tourism locations;

• To act upon tourism critical factors, and ensuring their sustainability, by:

• Consolidating the main active tourism centres, through land management and qualification, in order to differentiate them for their quality and complementarities, in terms of international competitiveness;

• Consolidating the existing tourism offer, through the modernisation and re-qualification of products, active workers and service range;

• Stimulating enterprise productivity growth, through the innovation of processes and technological resources, specially by fostering the use of new information and communication technologies;

• Qualifying and intensifying training of professionals to and for the tourism sector;

• Promoting the internationalisation of Portugal as a tourism destination, by using the existing products and tourism core markets, and by complementing it with an effort to introduce new products in the new or existing markets;

• To support the internationalisation of tourism economic agents, through funding mechanisms suitable for access to internationalisation, either on an individual basis or in association;

• Fostering the setting up of new business areas, intended to develop new tourism products, on the basis of existing potential and/or contributing to the reinforcement of regional cohesion, by taking advantage of and giving value to new tourism locations.

Building Industry

• To promote enterprise competitiveness, through a significant improvement of human resources skills, and through the reinforcement of technical, technological and marketing capacities, in order to support efforts towards innovation of products and processes, and the organisational re-adjustments required by international markets evolution;

• To foster productivity growth within enterprises - innovation, human resources, energy and environment efficiency, global quality - and through the active mobilisation of sector support infrastructures;

• To encourage vocational training in view of the reinforcement of human resources qualifications and skills, thus maximising their employability and adaptability;

• To support a proactive behaviour regarding access to knowledge and markets, in order to allow the enterprises to successfully face the challenges the globalisation patterns have given rise to;

• To reinforce business co-operation strategies, as a way to neutralize the extreme sector polarisation, and as a means to focus on innovation and research.

Energy

• To ensure the operation of the national supply system, without discontinuity and at affordable prices;

• To reduce the external dependency of the national energy system, and to foster the development of local energy resources, by using new and renewable energy sources;

• To reduce the dependency of the energy sector on oil, and to diversify primary energy sources and supply origins, namely by promoting the use of other fuels, such as natural gas;

• To foster energy conservation and rational use, as well as to reduce energy intensity in all activity sectors, thus contributing to the reduction of the energy bill and the country’s external dependence;

• To reduce the environmental impact of energy production and use;

• To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the national offer of energy products and services.

Portugal will only be able to reduce its energy consumption and its pollutant emissions by promoting energy and environmental awareness among Industry, Building Industry, Commerce and Services, and even in the Tourism sector.

Energy is a strategic sector for national economy competitiveness growth, either by reducing the energy bill, by externalities such as the environmental ones, or by its contribution to the technological modernisation of Portuguese economic agents and businesses.