Project Management Update from Portugal

A slow start but perhaps a promising year for Project Management in 2009 ?

The impacts of the world financial crisis are progressively emerging in the Portuguese economy. International companies employing considerably large workforces are downsizing and some are even closing down their sites, like is the case of Qimonda (a project oriented company). The immediate effect has been a rise in the unemployment rate of Portugal’s qualified workforce, including Project Managers. The number of officially registered unemployed professionals in Portugal has grown by 23,8% in March 2009 against the same month in 2008. In the private sector, companies that usually invest a considerable part of their annual budget in projects are delaying investment decisions and reducing the level of investment. Will Project Management also suffer a recession in the Portuguese economy in 2009?

Despite these clear negative signs of economic slow down, there are fortunately other factors and signs that may counter this negative tendency. A major factor that will stimulate project related economic activities are the governments decision to approve some major public investments, namely the construction of the new airport of Lisbon (the NAER – Novo Aeroporto), the construction of the high-speed rail network (the RAVE/ TGV) and the program to renovate all primary and secondary schools throughout the whole country – the Parque Escolar EPE program, with an overall budget of 2,5 thousand million Euros.

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