Tech Odyssey Series: From Portugal to China, a New Conversation Begins

In the previous episode of Tech Odyssey, we went to Startup Braga to see how a previous cops structure ended up being a start-up center with international aspirations. For the season ending, we speak to AICEP, Portugal’s trade and financial investment company and the series’ co-producer, about what may follow for innovation cooperation in between Portugal and China.

“Have you been to Portugal?”

A good friend from Singapore put that concern to Dr. Gang Lu, Founder and CEO of TechNode Group and Co-founder of BEYOND, throughout an opportunity encounter in Thailand, 2 weeks before the recording of the Tech Odyssey season ending.

He had actually seen the series. Now, he was seriously thinking about broadening his company into Portugal.

It was an unforeseen connection: a program checking out Portugal’s innovation sector had actually reached somebody somewhere else in Asia and triggered him to take a look at a market he may otherwise have actually ignored.

That became part of what AICEP wished to attain through the series. For Luís Costa, director of AICEP Shanghai and Portugal’s Economic and Commercial Counsellor in China, the exchange likewise operated in the other instructions. The Portuguese creators included in the program had a chance to read more about China.

“We are bringing China to them,” Costa stated, “and ideally they’ll ultimately think about China when they go overseas.”

Assisting Companies Find Their Next Market

AICEP is Portugal’s public trade and financial investment firm, running under the Ministry of Economy. Its work runs in 2 instructions: assisting Portuguese business broaden worldwide and drawing in foreign financial investment into Portugal.

For Costa’s group in China, that indicates supporting Portuguese organizations checking out the Chinese market while engaging with Chinese business thinking about investing or producing in Portugal.

There is likewise a wider job: developing self-confidence.

Costa desires potential financiers and purchasers to see Portugal as a trustworthy nation to do service with. Making that case needs more than a nationwide intro. Business require individuals who comprehend the marketplace they are getting in.

Francisco Catalão, a previous member of AICEP’s board, explained an abroad network covering more than 50 markets, with groups of various sizes depending upon regional requirements and existing service ties.

Those agents act as regional points of contact for Portuguese business. An organization thinking about Shanghai, for instance, can turn to Costa and his group for understanding of the business environment and assist making connections.

For Catalão, that regional proficiency is main to the network’s worth. A business might have an item all set for export, however discovering the ideal partners and comprehending how a brand-new market runs need a various type of preparation.

A Broader Picture of Portugal

Portugal’s white wine, food and standard markets recognize to global audiences. Its innovation business are typically less noticeable.

Costa saw Tech Odyssey as a chance to expand that image: to reveal creators establishing brand-new items, universities supporting emerging services, and organizations assisting concepts reach the marketplace.

One particular stood apart throughout the series: Portuguese start-ups tend to believe worldwide early in their advancement.

Costa explained creators thinking about abroad clients, partners and sources of capital nearly from the start. International growth enters into how they develop the business, instead of a choice scheduled for a later phase.

Catalão put those organizations within a broader economy that integrates recognized export markets with more recent locations of research study and advancement. Along with farming, white wine and food, he highlighted pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and the blue economy, consisting of innovations connected to the ocean.

Throughout the season, that vary ended up being concrete through sees to business dealing with spatial audio, wise metropolitan facilities, rehab devices and ecological tracking. Together, they used a more in-depth view of what Portuguese innovation organizations are developing– and where they wish to offer it.

Where Could Portugal and China Work Together?

Asked which sectors Chinese business need to take a look at more carefully, Costa pointed initially to medical and health innovation.

In his view, the capacity for collaborations and financial investment in those fields should have higher attention. He highlighted Portugal’s engineers, university network and research study abilities, together with rewards readily available to business happy to invest and produce in the nation.

“Personally, I see health tech as a huge chance” for Chinese business, he stated.

The discussion likewise turned to hardware. China’s abilities in hardware advancement and production recognized area for Lu. What amazed him throughout the journey was the variety of Portuguese companies dealing with physical items and associated innovations.

Costa concurred that there was scope to check out collaborations. The rate of service in Portugal might vary from that in cities such as Shenzhen, however business can still discover shared industrial interests.

That is where AICEP’s function ends up being useful: assisting companies determine possible partners and establish those preliminary discussions.

Making the Case for Portugal

For a Chinese business thinking about production in Europe, the choice includes a number of concerns at the same time: access to skill, area, logistics, energy, operating conditions and the economics of the financial investment.

Costa indicated Portugal’s connections with other European markets and its Atlantic-facing position in relation to the Americas and Africa. He likewise highlighted the nation’s high share of eco-friendly electrical power generation.

Portugal’s openness to foreign financial investment was another part of his pitch.

“We desire more Chinese business to continue buying Portugal and making collaborations with Portuguese business,” he stated.

In conversations with Chinese financiers, Costa discovers that much of the elements AICEP provides match what companies are trying to find: a smooth procedure, ease of operating and a practical balance of expenses and returns.

Those factors to consider offer business factors to examine even more. Whether a specific task makes good sense will eventually depend upon its own requirements, partners and industrial case.

From One Article to a Full Season

The concept behind this season started on a much smaller sized scale.

Costa remembered a very first conference 3 years previously, when the conversation centred on a single short article presenting Portugal. AICEP would offer product, and TechNode would choose the stories most appropriate to its audience.

That proposition ultimately ended up being a web series constructed around 4 days of sees to Portuguese cities, universities, incubators, financiers and innovation business.

For Costa, the resulting programs have worth beyond their preliminary release. Offered on platforms consisting of Bilibili, YouTube and LinkedIn, they produce a record that future audiences can go back to when searching for an intro to Portugal’s development environment.

The encounter in Thailand used one little indicator of how those stories may take a trip. An audience in Singapore had actually viewed the program and started thinking about Portugal as a location to broaden his company.

Costa hopes Portuguese creators will make a comparable discovery in the other instructions– that seeing and speaking with China will motivate them to think about a market outside their existing strategies.

The season ends with that possibility still open. The gos to are over, however the business, innovations and individuals come across along the method provide audiences someplace concrete to start their next discussion.