Portuguese Ambassador to Mozambique Elected Economic Diplomat of the Year

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Portuguese Ambassador to Mozambique Elected Economic Diplomat of the Year

1:43 CAT | 08 Jan 2016

Jornal de Negócios / Portugal's Ambassador to Mozambique, José Augusto Duarte.

José Augusto Duarte, Portuguese Ambassador to Mozambique, is the winner of the 2015 Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry ‘Economic Diplomat’ prize. The award and EUR25,000 prize euros were bestowed on Tuesday, January 5.

The award rewards the chief of the diplomatic mission for attracting foreign investment and his international support of Portuguese companies, contributing to the growth of the Portuguese economy.

The jury of the annual Francisco de Melo e Torres prize, named after the seventeenth century Portuguese diplomat who played a decisive role in the restoration of Portugal’s independence from Spain in 1640, is chaired by Ambassador Antonio Monteiro, along with Bruno Bobone and Miguel Horta e Costa, respectively President and Vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce.

“This award is recognition by actual companies and civil society of the fundamental work of economic diplomacy undertaken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by the embassies and consulates around the world,” Bobone explains.

The jury examines specific cases of companies that have expanded internationally with the support of a diplomat; of foreign companies that have established themselves in Portugal or invested in a Portuguese company through the direct action of the head of the diplomatic mission and events organised to promote Portugal abroad. This year saw a record number of applicants.

José Augusto Duarte turned 53 in March and has served in Portuguese embassies in Washington and Madrid and at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union in Brussels. He has been ambassador in Maputo since April 2013.

Luis de Almeida Sampaio, the Portuguese ambassador in Berlin, was distinguished in the second, 2014, edition of the award, and spent the prize money helping to create an economic diplomacy research centre focusing on the relationship between private and public sectors in the process of company and regional internationalization.

The ambassador of Portugal in Brasilia, Francisco Ribeiro Telles, won the first award in 2013, and applied the award to developing a collaborative project with the Centre for Excellence and Innovation in the Automotive Industry (CEIIA) to promote electric mobility in the Brazilian market.

Source: Jornal de Negócios