Famalicão and the characterisation of its territory ‘with a very deep-rooted entrepreneurial DNA’ yesterday served as a motto for the Mayor, Mário Passos, to remind the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, of some of the priority investments for the municipality. 

During the inauguration of the CeNTI, which took place on Monday, the mayor of Famalicão listed the fact that Famalicão is Portugal's third most exporting municipality, the first with the highest national gross added value in the manufacturing industry and the second that contributes most to the national trade balance, in order to call for ‘reciprocity between state revenue and investment in the territory, so that we can give even more to the country (...) and to give more competitiveness and development to entrepreneurial action in the territory’.

The mayor pointed to the need for a junction on the A7 between Famalicão and Póvoa de Varzim, already mentioned by the Famalicão, Póvoa de Varzim and Barcelos town councils, which would improve accessibility and benefit the growth of one of the municipality's most productive areas, complementing the ongoing investment in the National 14 road, the last phase of the Famalicão-Trofa and Maia bypass having been completed.

In terms of the road network, he also pointed out the need for a new connection to the neighbouring municipalities of Trofa and Santo Tirso, as an alternative to the crossing now made by the Lagoncinha Bridge, and the doubling of the entrance to the A3 at the Famalicão junction, as was done with the doubling of the exit junction.

Mário Passos also used the data in the municipality in terms of entrepreneurship and the dynamics of research, development and innovation, and the importance of Vocational Training, to call for greater local autonomy in the management of the vocational training process, which in his opinion would bring ‘greater articulation between the training offer and the needs of the territory’.

The mayor also called for more speed in the process of reducing bureaucracy, particularly in business projects of high public interest, an example of which is the creation of the largest rail freight dry port on the Iberian Peninsula in Famalicão, ‘which is slow to free itself from the obstacles of the state's bureaucratic network’.

‘Tackling these deficits would allow us to further strengthen Famalicão's entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem and thereby give more to Portugal,’ he said.