This Sunday, the prime minister begins a two-day trip to Germany, where he will inaugurate, together with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the Hannover industrial fair, which this year chose Portugal as a partner country.
According to the program released by the prime minister’s office, António Costa will meet today, at 3 pm (2 pm in Lisbon), with Portuguese businessmen who will be present at Hannover Messe’22.
Then, at around 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. in Lisbon), the president will go to the venue to, together with the German chancellor, preside over the opening of the fair.
On Monday, Scholz and Costa will participate “in the welcome ceremony in the auditorium of the central pavilion of Portugal”, at 9:00 am (8:00 am in Lisbon). Later, both will visit the national pavilions present at the event.
Created in 1947, the Hannover industrial fair takes place every year and is, according to the organization, “the most important industrial fair in the world”.
In 2019, the last time it was held in person -something that did not happen in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic-, Hannover Messe received 215,000 visitors -40% of whom came from abroad- and nearly 65,000 exhibitors.
In the year in which it returns to its face-to-face model, the fair chose Portugal as a partner because, according to the organization, it is an “important country for German industry, where companies will undoubtedly discover innovation, reliability and talent”.
Within the framework of Hannover Messe’22, António Costa organized, this month, three sessions with businessmen from the northern and central regions of Portugal who will participate in the fair, within the framework of a set of meetings entitled ‘On the way to Hannover’.
On May 18, in Aveiro, within the framework of the second meeting of this initiative, António Costa argued that the choice of Portugal as a partner of the industrial fair meant recognition of the work carried out by Portuguese companies.
“The attribution to Portugal of the status of partner country in the Hannover Messe is a recognition of the excellence of the work that Portuguese companies have developed”, said the Prime Minister at the time.
According to data published by the Portuguese Investment and Foreign Trade Agency (AICEP), Germany is the “third largest export market for goods” for Portugal and “the second largest for goods and services”.
Source: Observadora
