Google brings technological hub in Portugal, creating 500 jobs

The Portuguese prime minister António Costa announced that the North-American multinational Google will establish a services center (technological hub) for Europe, Middle East and Africa in Oeiras (Portugal), in July, creating 500 qualified job positions. Google confirmed to ECO they will be coming to Portugal and further stated the Portuguese center will be “fully dedicated to suppliers”.

“Several countries are fighting for this investment from Google. But the technological giant has chosen Portugal”. António Costa made this announcement in Davos, Switzerland, in the World Economic Forum, in a conference called “Why Portugal, why now”, with the presence of the Economy minister Manuel Caldeira Cabral and the Finance minister Mário Centeno.

An official source from the local authorities in Oeiras disclosed to the news agency Lusa that the new services center for the North-American multinational will be headed in Lagoas Park (Porto Salvo).

The Portuguese prime minister acknowledged this investment from Google in his speech, which opened the conference devoted to presenting Portugal to foreign investors as a competitive country, especially concerning “startups” and technological investments. “Among many investments in the horizon, I highlight one: Portugal will soon take in an investment from Google, which will create 500 qualified jobs“, António Costa stated. Most of those jobs will concern engineers.

An official source from the Portuguese executive stated that Portugal was able to get this investment from Google “within the framework of very strong international competition”. António Costa further highlighted that Portugal has the competitive advantages to be a country whose citizens speak foreign languages very well, who are academically trained in engineering and who “strongly invest in education”. “The companies also know that Portugal is a door for other continents”, the prime minister further stated.

To ECO, a spokesperson from Google disclosed, on the other hand, that this investment aimed to “locate some of the many suppliers supporting their operations” in the three regions — Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Paddy Cosgrave: Google is “the first” of several technological giants coming to Lisbon

According to the founder of the Web Summit, there are “rumors” that Google is “the first of a number of high profile tech companies opening major offices in Lisbon”. The information was shared by Paddy Cosgrave, on Twitter, from Davos (Switzerland), adding that “It’s a testament to the great work of the community in Portugal & Government”:

Tweet from @paddycosgrave