ICEP and PRIME in the Official Closing Session of Moulds Event 2006

According to ICEP, that elaborated a study about worldwide Portuguese credibility, Portugal is well supplied in terms of base competences; however, it has yet to continue its development. Referring to technology, Portugal is on the same level as Europe and the exports rate prove it. After regarding Moulds Event as a key event to promote sectorial knowledge, Abel Cubal de Almeida stated his support as a way to strengthen ICEP’s aim: “reinforce mouldmaking industry’s positioning in international markets.”

Nelson de Souza expressed his gratitude for the opportunity of presenting policies and measures that are and will be working for sector growth. He contemplated Moulds Event as a “good practice because it was a forum of knowledge transfer.” In the end, he made reference to QREN, whose aim is to guarantee growth based on exports emphasizing innovation and internationalization, which are two sides of the same coin, since being innovative means to have a strategy and a functioning organization adding physical, financial and human means. Nevertheless, we can not forget competence development, either from the organization or from the people, as complement to these two factors. “To do the best, in a different way and oriented to international markets, the companies can demand public supports. There are, however, priorities to select and investments to contemplate within these priorities”, asserted PRIME manager when concluding his intervention.

Within the coordination, Centimfe and Cefamol assessed the events held in this year’s edition of Moulds Event. The closing speech of the main marketing event, which aimed to reveal mouldmaking industry, was made by Joaquim Menezes. Centimfe’s president brought to our attention the need of group initiatives between companies, research units and institutes that aim for new technologies, services and business solutions, which will meet the client’s specific needs. “The future of industry is in our hands e we will continue to do our best, whether from Centimfe or Cefamol”, he added.

In his speech, Leonel Costa from Cefamol attested that “market, innovation, flexibility and competitiveness are key-words in this sector”. The promotion of the current knowledge should be emphasized in order to increase the number of global market opportunities. If Portugal owns a significant set of advantages at an European level, these should be explored with the intention of giving awareness to the sector within the governmental institutions. For that purpose, “the active participation of industry is necessary”.

Nonetheless, the statistic data is worthy of mentioning: more than 700 national and international participants, 14 different countries, 26 R&D centres, 19 universities and higher education schools, 3 training centres, 102 speakers and 72 international partners.