The continental part of Portugal is situated at the west coast of Europe, naming Iberian peninsula. The east and north side are connected with Spain, and the west and south side are facing the Atlantic ocean. It is a strategic position among Europe, America and Africa.
Apart from the continent, the territory also includes Azores and Madeira, two islands in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.all effort to protect the natural relics and has established a comprehensive protection measure.
The majority of the border line was confirmed at 12 century, which makes Portugal with the history of 900 years, becoming one of the oldest countries in the world, reflecting the unique and harmonic features of Portugal.
In the continental part of Portugal, Tagus (the biggest river in Portugal) separates the country into south and north parts. There are many mountains and highlands in the north, and in the south the height above sea level is relatively low and the terrain slopes gently. The terrain also slopes gently in the coastal area, showing completely different views with the interior part. The highest slope of the country is at the peak of Serra da Estrela in the midland, with the sea level 1991 meters. In terms of the island, the Pico mountain (2351 meters) is the highest point of Azores, whereas Pico Ruivo is the highest point of Madeira.
nd the north of the island of Borneo. The south part of Malaysia is connected with Indonesia. Malaysia is one of the founding country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.In the coastal area, the terrain usually slopes gently, only the entrance of rivers (Tejo, Sadu) has raise and fall. There are also some small bay: Peniche, Sines, Lagos, Vouga-Aveiro, óbidos and Faro. There is not much fluctuant terrain at the coastal area with little raise and fall, but it has became the beautiful see-sight: Mondego, Garvoeiro, Roca, S. Vicente and Santa Maria.
The population in Portugal is around 10.6 million, with over the half economically active population. The population in Portugal is intense at coastal area, with the most concentrated areas Lisbon(capital) and Porto.
There are around 200 million people speaking Portuguese, at continents such as Europe, Africa, America and Asia. The spread of Portuguese connects and deepens Portugal and the world in history and culture.
The Portuguese Republic is a democratic country, based on the respect of basic rights and freedom and the respect of the split of power. According to the law, the Sovereign organizations are president, congress, government and court.
The president is the head of the country, elected by universal suffrage, for a period of 5 years and can be reelected. After the president election on 23 January 2011, Aníbal Cavaco Silva was reelected as the president. are president, congress, government and court.
The legislative authority belongs to the national congress, which is formed by 230 members of a legislative assembly from universal suffrage, for a period of 4 years and Porto.
The current president in Portuguese Pedro Passos Coelho is the leader of social democratic party, which won the election at the congress election in June 2011.
The jurisdiction in Portugal belongs to courts at different level, they are independent and have their own structure and system. There are two types of courts (constitutional court and court of accounts). The court of justice, administrative court and the revenue court have their structures at different level. Besides that, there are maritime court, court of arbitration and court of peace.
all, but it has became the beautiful see-sight: Mondego, Garvoeiro, Roca, S. Vicente and Santa Maria.
Basic infrastructure of highway: currently Portugal is one of the countries having the most advanced highway network in Europe, with Cyber-highway (AE), arterial highway (IP), service routine (IC), national highway (EN) and local highway. In 2010, the total length of part of Portugal mainland was 13,123 km, with 2,737 km the cyber-highway, which exceed one fifth of the total highway network.
Railway network: The total mile of railway network has reached 2,843 km(with 2,794 km the operation miles), consisting of the north and south route on the coastal area of Portugal, with complicated network line. The high intensive railway network is particularly important for intensive living area.
ith 2,737 km the cyber-highway, which exceed one fifth of the total highway network.
Airport network: Portugal has 15 airports, the important airports are at Lisbon, Porto and Faro, which are all international airports, situated at coastal areas. It is planned that Lisbon will built another airport. Because of the existence of autonomous islands, there will be more airports. There are 9 airports at the Archipelago of the Azores, and 2 airport at Madeira. Most of the international airlines have the flight route to Portugal, and TAP Portugal is an airline from Portugal.
Maritime connections: At the continental part of Portugal there are 9 main ports: Viana do Castelo and Leixōes in the north, Aveiro and Figueira da Foz in the midland, Lisboa and Setúbal in Lisbon area, Sines in Alentejo area, Faro and Portimāo in Algarve. There are 8 ports at the Archipelago of the Azores, and 3 ports at Madeira. At some ports in the continent, only Lisbon and Leixões have ferry routes, and Leixões has less passenger capacity. In Portugal, the main use of port basic infrastructure is the transportation of cargo, with some of the important ports such as Sines (38.6% of total in 2010), Leixões (24.4%) and Lisbon (18.5% in 2011).
The most obvious feature of the economics in Portugal in the past decent years is the increase of service industry, which is similar as other European partners. In 2011 the agriculture, forest and fishery had only 21% of total increase volume (quite different with 24% in 1960), with 9.9% of population doing these work. In the mean time, industry, construction, energy, water conservancy project had the total increase volume of 23.3%, and the service industry had the total increase volume of 74.5%, with 62.8% of population doing these work.
Apart from service industry’s important position in economics, the change of manufacture is also a shining point of the economics in Portugal. Portugal has separated from the support of traditional industry, the new industry with high technology involved becomes more and more important with the potential of increase, such as automobile and its accessories, electronics, energy, pharmacy and high-technology. Because of the perfect geographic location, and the warm etesian climate, also the long coastline, the tourism in Portugal has been developed quite well.
At the end of 2009, with the economic recovery globally, and the recovery of main trading partners, the economics in Portugal had increased since 2010 (GDP has increased by 1.4%). It was because the good performance of export, which became the reason of economic recovery.
However, the whole 2010 and the beginning of 2011 the spread of European sovereign debt crisis had sharpened the worsen of international financial market entrance. The economics in Portugal had high foreign debt with low economic increase, also because of the over financial deficit, the sustained development of public finance became a problem. At April, 2011 Portugal had applied financial aid from European Union and International Monetary Fund.
The financial economic plan amendment which expires in 2013 has the main strategic policy which is to make sure the medium and long-term economic balance and standing increase, to eliminate the constraints of economic growth, to promote competitive power and employment, to make sure the sustained development of public finance.
It has the great impact on the influence of the economics in Portugal. In 2011 and 2013 the GDP in Portugal had decreased by 1.6% and 3.0% respectively. It is predicted with the active domestic demand and fast increased export, the economics in 2013 will increased steady.
International Trade:
In 2011, the commodity and service export had increased by 13.3%, with the commodity export increased dramatically (increased by 15.3%). In the mean time, the service export had increased by 9%. In the fist half of 2013, the commodity and service export increased less than last year (with a decrease of 6.4%), the increase of service export (0.1%) and the commodity export increase (9.0%) were more obvious.
In the first half of 2012, in the main commodity export markets, Spain had less share of the market, however it was still the most important export country, followed by Germany and France. Angora has exceeded UK, with the 4th rank, and USA had increased from 8th to 6th, took place of Holland. Italy, Belgium and China (with an increase of 7 places) had occupied the last three positions of the 10 main export countries of Portugal.
In the mean time, machine tools had the biggest export volume, with 15.0% of the total export. It has an increase of 13.4%. The next the automobile and other transportation devices (12.9%, with an increase of 3.4%). Fuel was in the third place, with 8.6% of the total export. It has increased 2% with the first half of 2011, becoming the biggest increased commodity with an increase of 42.2%
Since the beginning of 2011, the commodity import grew slowly, with an increase of 1.2% with 2010, whereas the service import had increased by 5%. In the first half of 2012, the commodity export had dropped by 5.3% with last year, and service export has dropped by 8,7% with last year. The main import commodities are fuel, machine tools, chemicals, with 46.7% of the total import in Portugal in 2012. Spain, Germany, France and Italy were the main import sources countries, the imports from these countries took more than 55% of the total import in Portugal.
International Investment
Direct Investment of overseas to Portugal
In the past five years, the foreign direct investment in Portugal had increased positively, with the total investment amount 30 billion to 40 billion EUR. On the other hand, the foreign direct investment in Portugal is creative and international, which is not quite beneficial for the increase of net investment. Because it is still unclear about the business environment after the international financial crisis, so the investors become more prudence.
In 2011, the foreign direct investment in Portugal had reached 39.6 billion EUR, and net investment had reached 7.5 billion EUR, means an increase of 274.5% compared with last year.
In the first half of 2012, the foreign direct investment in Portugal had reached 21.3 billion EUR, and net investment had doubled, with more than 6 billion EUR.
Wholesale and retail industry were the biggest beneficial industries of the foreign direct investment in Portugal (32.1% of total investment), followed by economics and insurance (22%) and manufacturing industry (17.2%), these industries had about over 70% of the total foreign direct investment.
In the first half of 2012, European Union was still the source of foreign direct investment of Portugal. Other countries’ investment were about 7.9% of the foreign direct investment of Portugal. Luxembourg, Spain, UK, France and Holland all had good rank, apart from the 27 countries in European Union, only Switzerland become the 10 biggest foreign direct investment countries of Portugal.
Foreign Direct Investment of Portugal
In the past 5 years, the foreign direct investment of Portugal had reached 8-16 billion EUR, starting from the large investment to Spain and Brazil since the end of 1980.
In 2011, the foreign direct investment had grown to 15.6 billion EUR, with an increase of 60% compared with last year. The net investment had reached 9.1 billion EUR, with an increase of 260.7%.
In the first half of 2012, compared with last year, the foreign direct investment had dropped about 22%, with a value of 5.6 billion EUR. The net foreign direct investment had dropped with more than 46%, just above 2 billion EUR. Finance and insurance still became the biggest foreign direct investment of Portugal in the first half of 201 (80.2%), followed by manufacturing industry (8.4%).
The main investment countries are Holland (66.8%), exceeding other countries quite a lot. However, the foreign direct investment countries become more diversified, apart from Brazil (ranked No. 3), Angola (ranked No.5), USA (ranked No.7) and Mozambique (ranked No.9), there are other East European countries such as Poland (ranked No.8), Romania(ranked No.11).
bsp;by manufacturing industry (8.4%).
