Message from the Portuguese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

"I believe that cooperation should be directed to accompany countries and other partners to develop and empower its institutions and human resources. The Portuguese cooperation should promote the necessary conditions to help develop local economies and increasingly secure sustainable living conditions to their populations. Municipalities play a key role both in attracting investment and wealth creation, employment, technology transfer and competitiveness in local economies. The priorities to consider in a globalized and interdependent world include the areas of education, economy, climate change, integration and mobility. We must think in a global context to act locally, favoring communities and municipalities, which can play the role of referral partners, innovating traditional forms of intermunicipal cooperation, from traditional to new twinning partnerships and networking."

Luís Brites Pereira, Portuguese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation