French investors have played a key role in the revival of Portugal’s economic fortunes. Numerous examples of investments during 2015 had an impact on sectors such as communications, automotive, aviation, real estate and agriculture. Portugal’s minister of Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, Pedro Marques, praised the role of such investments, saying they had created or saved thousands of jobs during a period of economic recession. Among the more prominent investments in recent years he mentioned were the da Vinci acquisition of Airports of Portugal and Altice’s acquisition of Portugal Telecom in 2015. Portuguese exports to France increased by over 7 percent in 2015 to €6.42bn, said the minister, who noted that France is the second largest customer of Portugal. The government will “continue to work to maintain the same pace of investment support,” said Marques, claiming that European funds available to Portugal “will quickly be put to the service of investment support.”
