NokiaSiemens is to open a new innovation telecommunications innovation centre at Taguspark (Oeiras) west of Lisbon creating 110 engineering jobs by end 2008. The new centre is a partnership with the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Technical University of Lisbon, and will develop software applications for telecommunications and network management for global customers.  João Picoito, local manager for Nokia-Siemens in Portugal and Spain, says these applications will “automate the business process and help to reduce operating costs”. Taguspark new research centre is part of the technological axis which the company is creating in Portugal, the first part of which was the earlier opening of an R&D partnership with Universidade de Aveiro, University of Aveiro, in the north of the country. University of Aveiro has long been the centre of excellence and innovation for telecommunications in Portugal and was where the former state owned telecoms operator based its R&D resources. 

Accor Group (France) is to open five new hotels in Lisbon for a total €35 million investment. This includes 4 Ibis branded hotels and one Etap hotel. Yan Caillère, Accor director for southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Ibis at Alfragide, which had been closed for 18 months for remodelling will be reopened in the course of 2008. At Torres de Lisboa Accor, has a 500-room project including an Ibis hotel and an Etap unit. Two Ibis  units will be built at Sintra and Parque das Nações,  the former Expo  98 site. Accor has no  current plans to open any more top of the range hotels in Portugal currently restricted to Sofitel Avenida da Liberdade hotel in Lisbon. Yan Caillère says there are however opportunities to develop other brands in its portfolio such as a Suit Hotel or an All Seasons hotel.  Portugal “has enormous tourism potential and is fighting to attract more visitors - we see the country as an important market”,  he said.

Applications from companies registering trademarks via the Internet in Portugal have significantly increased since the trademarks website opened in December 2006. The Ministry of Justice says 75% of all recent applications -- 12,240 -- were made online. In 2002 there was a 15 months delay between the time an application was lodged for it to be granted.  This has been reduced to between six and eight months and in 2007 80% of all such applications were granted within five months says Tiago Silveira Secretary of State for Justice. Meanwhile according to latest EU data Portugal now ranks third among the top member states in providing digital online government services.   A Cap Gemini report comparing  the availability and sophistication of on-line public services across the 27 states says Portugal, along with Malta, Estonia  and Slovenia,  has made one of the strongest advances in recent years.   In a related development government has pledged to consider adopting a Dutch government initiative to introduce targets for e-government service delivery and service quality. The Dutch have produced a declaration and guiding principles for good e-governance and are urging other EU member states to  follow suit. The Dutch Letter of E-governance says: “citizens should be able to select the channel they wish to use for interaction - over the counter, in writing, telephone and Internet; the state sector should be transparent; citizens should fully informed of their rights and duties; all information from public servants should be personalized and complete; procedures should be easy to understand; central government should reimburse citizens for mistakes made by the civil service.