[ESTABLISHING A BUSINESS ENTITY IN PORTUGAL] 405
(iii) Excellent environment to live and work. The country has safe urban centers and suburbs. This environment also promotes a freedom impression to anyone that decides to live in Portugal. All major international studies consider Portugal as a country with a significant tourism potential and place Portuguese cities on the top of the ranking for living and conducting events and conferences. (iv) Infrastructure. During the past decades, Portugal has invested heavily in modernizing its communications infrastructure. The result was an extensive network of land, air and maritime route facilities. We may also enumerate ten other additional reasons to invest in Portugal: • One of the lowest operational costs in Western Europe; • A founder member of and full participant in the European Monetary Union; • A superb investment track record, with many high-tier companies involved in new projects; • One of Europe’s youngest and most enthusiastic qualified workforces, with first rate training facilities and universities; • One of the world’s best and most flexible incentives packages; • High levels of productivity growth in both manufacturing and services; • A wide range of sites and buildings, including industrial and business incubators facilities which are ready to use, at highly competitive prices;
• High quality support services for investors, both during and after investment; • One of Europe’s best records for industrial relations; • A high quality of life with one of the old continent’s lowest crime rates. Also, there is a principle of equal treatment between foreign and domestic investors and thus there are no entry restrictions for foreign capital. In fact, the guiding principle of the Portuguese legal framework is to prohibit discrimination of the investment on the grounds of nationality. Likewise, it is not required to have a national partner and there are no specific obligations for foreign investors to comply with. There are also no restrictions on the profits and/or dividends repatriation. Given that Portugal is a member state of the European Union, an entrepreneur planning to invest in the country is not submitted to stricter rules than those governing domestic investment followed by entrepreneurs. Therefore, as a general principle, there is no differential treatment between foreign and domestic investment in Portugal. In general terms, foreign and local companies are free to invest in any industry. However, there may be specific requirements, such as the granting of a concession contract, when performing activities for the public administration sector. Certain activities related to certain basic public services (such as treatment and distribution of drinking water or disposal of urban waste) are prohibited for private companies, except when licensed by a public entity through an administrative contract. Likewise, foreign investment projects must be compatible with specific legal requirements if,
ILN Corporate Group – Establishing a Business Entity Series
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