"Even though the world economy is slower than three years ago, the global uncertainty factors, from trade war threats between large trading blocs to the risk of the UK abandoning the European Union, the truth is that Portuguese entrepreneurs continue to invest and to demonstrate confidence in their ability to grow, despite this framework of uncertainty", António Costa said.

The prime minister was speaking during the signing ceremony for two pacts for competitiveness and internationalisation.

The pacts were signed by the ministry of economy and three of 20 clusters recognised by the Portuguese agency for competitiveness and innovation IAPMEI in 2019, under Interface Programme.

Those three clusters – the car industry, engineering and tooling and production-technologies - have created 400,000 jobs.