Nº15 July / September 2021 PORTUGAL ON THE MOVE BUSINESS RITA MARQUES Kickstarting tourism APPII Streamlining planning permission NOVO BANCO What went wrong? GARLAND Shipping goods since 1776 BEATRIZ RUBIO Commandments for success July / September 2021 €3.00 m n- in mun -take e d ic k p e m a s r o i s d t O o C R r s ab ge l Bala d e n c e e l d w o Unique International Curriculum n k T s r C h R e e g i n k e a v r i n fl e c t i FROM DAYCARE TO IB DIPLOMA PROGRAMME MINDFULNESS LANGUAGES CODING & M T ROBOTICS IB , . B ’ , W . L ’ . A ISS ( , , , C - . I , C ) . . APPLY FOR SEP. 2021 1 04/09/2020 13:53 Editorial Director Cátia Matos - [email protected] Features Editor Chris Graeme - [email protected] Art Director João Cardoso - [email protected] Contributing writers Chris Graeme, Jonathan Charles, Sarah Boleyn Comercial Director Paula Mouco - [email protected] Proofreading Cristina Alcock Subscriptions subscriptions.open-media.net CHRIS GRAEME Printed by Grafisol - Edições e Papelarias, Lda Rua das Maçarocas Abrunheira Business Center nº 03 Welcome to Issue 15 of Essential Business, Abrunheira 2710-056 Sintra Tel.: +351 219 158 150 [email protected] As the Covid-19 crisis drags on into a second summer season companies operating in the tourism sector, one of the most important for Portugal’s economy, are again facing disaster and ruin. The Lisbon Office Av. Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco, Torre 2, 10º, Fracção 11 government has provided some funds and will distribute others. Will they, however, be sufficient 1070-101 Lisboa to prevent many small family-owned hotels, restaurants, bars and shops from closing down? Tel (+351) 213 224 812 Essential speaks to the Secretary of State for Tourism Rita Marques about the government’s short- [email protected] to-medium and long term plan for the sector. Algarve Office Now that a long and very public parliamentary inquiry into imprudent lending at Banco Espírito Apartado 59, Parque Empresarial Algarve 7, 8401-901 Lagoa Santo and mismanagement at its successor Novo Banco has ended, David Sampson looks back Tel (+351) 282 341 333 Fax (+351) 282 341 360 at the fall of Espírito Santo and the genesis of Novo Banco and suggests what went wrong and [email protected] why the Portuguese public has largely picked up the bill. London Office Twenty-five years ago Portuguese cuisine was hardly cuisine at all. It was tasty and wholesome 40 Craven Street, Charing Cross but lacked sophistication. How things have changed thanks to top Portuguese and overseas chefs London WC2N 5NG, England Tel: +44 (0) 207 389 0527 who have made it glamorous and put it on the International map. Essential speaks to two chefs, Vasco Coelho Santos (Euskalduna Group) and London’s Bar Douro founder Max Graham on the Distribuição VASP - Distribuidora de Publicações, Lda latest trends in Portuguese cuisine. MLP: Media Logistics Park Beatriz Rubio the CEO of RE/MAX Portugal is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic business - Quinta do Grajal - Venda Seca women today in Portugal. The high-profile estate agent shares with Essential her 10 command - 2739-511 Agualva Cacém Tel (+351 214 337 000 ments for success. [email protected] Cryptocurrencies are gaining influence and threaten to make the traditional banking sector Published by irrelevant. Despite talk of the European Central Bank developing its own digital currency, little has OpenMedia Europe S.A. been done and the banks continue to sit on the fence. We talk to two people in the know - crypto Periodicy assets expert Mário Valente and opinion leader Patrícia Akester on why they are here to stay. Trimonthly Portugal’s real estate investment and development market is one of the main drivers of Portugal’s Circulation economy, yet both central and local government find it difficult to balance the need to generate 6000 tax revenue from this ‘golden goose’ without scaring away investors. We interview the new C.E.O. president of the Portuguese Association for Real Estate Developers and Investors, Hugo Santos Miguel Ladeira Santos Ferreira about what needs to be done to continue to make Portugal an attractive investment location in Europe and the world. This and many more articles await you in the latest issue of Essential Business. Chris Graeme, Editor While every effort has been made to mantain the integrity of our advertisers, we accept no responsability for any problem, complaints, or subsequent litigation arising from readers’ response to advertisements in this magazine. We also wish to emphasise that views expressed by editorial contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers. Copyright Essential Business 2018© Reproduction of any part of this magazine is strictly forbidden Estatuto editorial Publicação registada na Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social com o A revista Essential Business pretende dar a conhecer à comunidade empresarial e internacional em Portugal e a quem visita o país em trabalho, para eventos profissionais número 127106. DirectorCátia Matos Propriedade Open Media Europe S.A. ou para investimento, a realidade e atualidade sobre negócios em Portugal. NIF 515462063 Administrador/Presidente do Conselho de Administração Miguel Ladeira Santos Enquanto temas relacionados com a imobiliária e o turismo são uma presença constante, a revista e os seus suportes digitais cobrem todas as áreas de negócio, incluindo 1 - É garantida a liberdade de imprensa, nos termos da Constituição e da lei. a saúde, o retalho e as mais diversas indústrias. 2 - A liberdade de imprensa abrange o direito de informar, de se informar e de ser informado, sem impedimentos nem discriminações. A revista Essential Business assume o compromisso de assegurar o respeito pelos princípios deontológicos e pela ética profissional dos jornalistas, assim como pela 3 - O exercício destes direitos não pode ser impedido ou limitado por qualquer boa-fé dos leitores. tipo ou forma de censura. www.essential-business.pt 4 Essential Features 8 News AMCHAM ORGANISES PORTUGAL -US TRADE SUMMIT 12 Cover story PORTUGAL ’S PLANS FOR TOURISM 20 Lisbon’s Education Hub MEET PORTUGAL ’S EDUCATION PIONEERS 26 Real estate THE PORTUGUESE GOVERNMENT ’S GOLDEN GOOSE 12 32 Beatriz Rubio SELLING HOUSES WITH CHARM 32 36 BPCC ENCOURAGING CONNECTIVITY 38 Covid-19 WILL OFFICE WORK EVER BE THE SAME ? 40 Garland THRIVING SINCE 1776 44 Trip Hawkins THE GAMING GENIUS 46 Portugal’s EU Presidency 48 SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL 48 Casa Relvas A FAMILY AFFAIR 52 Novo Banco PORTUGAL ’S BANKING SOAP OPERA 56 Cryptocurrencies HAS PORTUGAL ’S CENTRAL BANK MISSED THE BOAT ? 60 Opinion FLY ME TO THE MOON ! 62 Sheraton 20 A CITY HOTEL IN TIMES OF COVID 26 62 66 Talking tourism RITA MARQUES AT THE ICPT 40 www.essential-business.pt 6 Essential News Pledge to streamline planning processes Carlos Moedas, the main opposition candidate standing against incumbent mayor Fernando Medina in the Lisbon Municipal Council elections on 26 September has pledged to streamline planning permission processes if he wins. For decades both national and overseas developers in Portu - gal have complained about the years is often takes to get Angola at a Crossroads planning permission approved for a simple project, with a UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson fa - process passing through many mously asserted that after Brexit Angolan hands before licenses are either approved or denied. families would be able to “tuck into deli - At the International Club of cious wholesome chicken from Northern Portugal in July, Moedas, who Ireland.” But the general public has been until 2020 had been the Euro - more used to hearing from BBC’s pean Commissioner for Scien - Panorama that Isabel dos Santos, Africa's ce, Research and Innovation said that at both council and parish levels clearly defined richest woman, ‘ripped off Angola’ . rules and transparency was required. Moedas says that the entire planning procedure needed to be sped up and modernised. “We will have to change, and as quickly as Nonetheless, Angola is much more than a market for possible, what is now one of the worst scourges of Lisbon - the problem of planning Irish chickens or a sunny place for alleged shady permission permits”. kleptocrats. It is one of the biggest economies in Carlos Moedas has also promised to use city council owned land and empty pro - Sub-Saharan Africa, alongside with Nigeria, South perties to create affordable housing for rent in a bid to attract young professionals Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia, being the second major and families back into the centre of the city where the cost of property is so high as oil power, and a sizeable diamond producer. It deve - to beyond the reach of the Portuguese middle classes. loped a pivotal role during the Cold War, as well as claiming a central role in the independence of Namibia and in the creation of strategic conditions for the liberation of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Oeiras builds 1,200 middle class However, Angola is poised at a crossroads between a past marked by civil war and corruption and a housing units future of potential economic development. Angola at a Crossroads is a new book by Rui Santos Verde from publisher I. B. Tauris (Bloomsbury) which The Oeiras Municipal Council examines the post-Civil War period which began in is to build 1,200 new homes at 2002 and saw the rise of a corrupt ruling elite, as well affordable prices aimed at the as recent developments in the country, such as the middle classes in the borough. efforts of the current President, João Lourenço, to reform the regime through political openness, The project has been created by the economic growth and a crackdown on corruption.