Cloudflare CEO accuses Portuguese government of “incompetence”

  • ECO News
  • 4 November 2020

Matthew Prince accused the government of "incompetence" due to bureaucracy.

Cloudflare technology leader is disappointed with the decision to open a company office in Portugal. In a series of Twitter publications addressed to the Portuguese Prime Minister, Matthew Prince accuses the Portuguese government of “incompetence”.

“Dear António Costa, when your team promises to work with companies in exchange for moving significant jobs to Portugal and shows laws to support those promises; then your bureaucrats refuse to follow those laws and promises — is that ok? I feel lied to,” said the company’s manager.

Cloudflare is a New York City listed technology company that provides security services for Internet websites. The technology company chose Lisbon to install an office in July 2019, having already 45 employees. Recently, it announced its intention to double this number in the country.

However, the company’s leader is now disappointed with the treatment he has received. “We’re hiring local Portuguese. We’re bringing the best and brightest Portuguese diaspora back to Portugal. We’re importing some of the smartest engineers to train local Portuguese on future technologies. Yet: we’re blocked at every turn,” Matthew Prince said, without giving more details.

Despite the choice of Lisbon to receive these investments, this is not the first time that Matthew Prince criticizes aspects related to Portugal. On December 28, 2018, before the decision to invest in the country was made, the founder of Cloudflare came to the Portuguese capital to study the possibility of opening an office in Lisbon. He was stuck in line for over one hour at SEF, so he commented: “The 2 hour line to get through immigration doesn’t make a very good first impression.”