AT THE TOP 10 OF EXPORTS

Displacement of the companies’ headquarters make results disloyal

In 2017, Portuguese exports accounted for 55,097 million euros, and in this "cake", the "slice" of Santa Maria da Feira corresponds to 2.5%. A weight and a value that, according to Emídio Sousa, represents a "good result", but that is still "curious."

"Two years ago we were in tenth place, now were are at ninth, but I am convinced that we would be somewhere between the fifth and sixth place.  Many of the companies in Santa Maria da Feira have their headquarters in Lisbon or Porto, and I think the values of both the district of Lisbon and the district of Oporto are very inflated. I know the reality very well and I know some companies of Santa Maria da Feira that have moved their headquarters to Gaia, for example, because of the issues related to the performance of Finance in the district of Aveiro"- considers the Mayor.

In the Congress CIP 2018, the Mayor of the City took advantage of the presence of Marcelo Rebelo Sousa to denounce the "fiscal persecution" allegedly practiced against some companies of Santa Maria da Feira, which will have caused the entities to have moved their fiscal headquarters to other regions of the country, maintaining the entire manufacturing and production unit in Santa Maria da Feira. "I am convinced that our 1360 million should be somewhere between 1,500 and 1,600 million. Obviously, I do not know all the companies that left here, but some of which I am aware of have very large names, and I am sure that if this discrepancy between the place where the company has its production base and the location of the headquarters didn’t exist, we would be somewhere between the fifth and sixth place", believes Emídio Sousa.

Portugal has just over three hundred municipalities (308). Of this total, the sixteen located in the Littoral Region export as much merchandise abroad as the other 292, and Santa Maria da Feira is among the most fertile territories in terms of exports. Above Viana do Castelo (1.5% of sales in 2017), Ovar (1.6%), Oliveira de Azeméis (1.6%), Matosinhos (1.6%), Porto (1.9%), Oeiras (2.2%) and Sintra (2.4%), appears Santa Maria da Feira, with a 2.5 % representation.

The "house in front of the sea" offers a multitude of possibilities, opening doors to the market and the merchants that arrive from outside, but Emídio Sousa believes that the value achieved can be attributed to the "entrepreneurial tradition", a characteristic of Santa Maria da Feira.

"Santa Maria da Feira has its own context: we have the cork industry, which is an area with a strong presence in Santa Maria da Feira; the footwear sector, of which we are the largest exporter after Felgueiras; we also have the metal mechanics, where we have about 200 companies, and we also stand out on the paper sector, being the largest producer of packaging. All of these are industries that have already been located in our territory since the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It has always existed this entrepreneurial tradition in our territory, although we can not disconnect from our geographical location"- considers the Mayor.

It seems to be the very word of order. "Disseminating" the territory, its characteristics and the vital forces of the labour market that support it, make the offices of the companies return to those that are the possibilities offered by the international market. These are some of the main beliefs and bases of action of the Mayor.

"We are going abroad to reveal the territory, even the most traditional company came to see the sale to the global market as a hypothesis. Our numbers are much larger than those expressed, I have no doubts", believes Emídio Sousa, perceiving the e-commerce as an already existent future – "We are working precisely in the area of e-commerce, with a focus on the programming language, but this is not something that comes from now. Four years ago, when Bizfeira was launched, which is precisely an international business platform, where we have already registered about two thousand companies. The aim is to get people to understand how these new tools work, so they can work and take benefits of their advantages".

Santa Maria da Feira was also one of the municipalities with the highest increase, in millions of euros, between 2013 and 2017.

On paper and on the table, the territory of Santa Maria da Feira appears in eighth place, with an increase of 240 million euros. However, for Emídio Sousa, the numbers should be different. "I believe that we should be around the 500 million euros for four years. There are cases of companies that have changed the location of the headquarters and that, therefore, are not accounted as being from Santa Maria da Feira" - he evaluates.

The period of time in analysis, and where the rise was registered, refers to the first term of Emídio Sousa in the leadership of the City Hall. However, the mayor recognizes other merits. "We are doing our work in this field. The merit of our entrepreneurs, our employees, of the whole group of citizens who participate in our labour market. We have businessmen who believes they can change the world with their work, and with workers capable of producing at a very competitive level"- he concludes.