Vestas chose Porto on account of its talent pool
22 Jan 2019
"Talent was the number one reason for vestas to settle in Portugal", specifically in Porto and the Northern Region of the country, as stated on 21 January by Vestas's Vice-Chairman Jorge Magalhães to Lusa News Agency, in the context of his participation in the Conference Investment, innovation and Digitalisation: the Portuguese case, which took place in Lisbon.
Other contributing factors to establishing in the outskirts of Porto are the collaboration with universities, as well as research centres and technological partners.
"It is not possible to innovate without having access to talent. One has to have talent but be able to retain it", declared Jorge Magalhães.
Vestas's Vice-Chairman also referred to the "excellency of Portuguese technical universities", despite the fact that "they don't always have the incentive to undertake the necessary investments in laboratories and scientific equipment", because "those who work there are highly skilled", he added.
Other reasons pinpointed for choosing the Northern Region and Porto are the business environment, the research partners, the ability to communicate in English, the ease of doing business and local support.
The official explained that at the moment "there are 300 engineers designing the next generation of Vesta products".
In September 2018, the Danish multinational opened its facilities in the outskirts of Porto, in the Lionesa Business Centre, which plays host to a new innovation and research centre, and Engineering development that "will be in permanent contact with the centres of the world leader in the wind energy sector in the United Kingdom, Norway, India and the headquarters in Denmark", as read in the statement by the multinational.
Vestas plans to invest ten million euros in Portugal till 2020.
