By CHRIS GRAEME chris.graeme@theresidentgroup.com
British Ambassador to Portugal Alexander Ellis presented the United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) Awards for Portugal towards the end of last month.
UKTI named 10 Portuguese companies which have selected the UK market to expand and internationalise their business successfully.
This, the third UKTI (Portugal) Awards, recognised Energias de Portugal (EDP), the Pestana Group, Springloft, Lusowest, Efaflu and Visionbox in the Business Internationalisation Award, Alert Life Science and Quidgest in the Business Expansion category, the Sonaegroup took away the Special Investor Recognition Business Award while Albatroz Engineering scooped the Global Partnership Programme Award.
Alexander Ellis told the invited guests and award winners at the Hotel Pestana Palace on April 21 that the United Kingdom was “a market that was truly open to investment from any part of the world, one where there was a lot of competition”.
He said that the UK was an “excellent springboard” from which to expand into other markets in Europe and the United States, and could act as a quality test bed for Portuguese companies in an environment where they could “compete with some of the best companies in the world”.
The Ambassador pointed out that in order to invest in the UK a company didn’t have to be gigantic, it just needed to have “the investment, good projects and guaranteed quality”.
The annual UKTI Business Awards give recognition to the best investment projects from overseas companies, encouraging them to look to the UK as their global partner of choice.
It offers expertise and contacts through its national and global networks and aims to enhance the competitiveness of companies and attract Direct Foreign Investment to the UK.
Transparent
At the British Embassy, UKTI has a dedicated team of staff working to help Portuguese companies wanting to invest and set up in the UK, offering help, advice and support on networking as well as providing useful information on the UK market.
António Mexia, CEO of EDP, praised the UK market as “by far, one of the most transparent markets I’ve ever worked in”.
EDP picked up the award for its involvement with a wind farm off the coast of Scotland in partnership with Sea Energy Renewable and 30 other collaborators in the UK.
Dionísio Pestana, CEO of the Pestana Group of hotels and resorts, called the United Kingdom an “attractive market” not just because of its tourist potential but also because it served as “a gateway into Europe”.
The company has recently opened the prestigious and luxury Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel.
Cláudia Teixeira de Azevedo, of the Sonae Group, which already has a long relationship with the UK, said: “We know that if we can be good in the UK market then we can do well anywhere.”
