The announcement was made by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the Mayor of Porto, Pedro Duarte, after a two-hour meeting with the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas.

Luís Montenegro explained that the Ramalde Industrial Zone will undergo an "urban reorganisation of the entire area" to direct it "towards a potential that combines what already exists from an industrial point of view, from a service point of view, with new uses, new frameworks, particularly with regard to technology companies."

The Prime Minister compared these plans to the Lisbon project "Parque Cidades do Tejo".

Job Creation

The specifics of the future “Porto Economic and Business District” were revealed by Pedro Duarte, who said the project will create “up to 35,000 new jobs” and “up to 6,000 new homes for the middle class”.

“Our intention is to bury the current AEP avenue so that we can connect the two banks of that industrial zone, and we can create a large housing park, business spaces, services, public space for the enjoyment of the communities, with green spaces, for sports practice”, added the mayor, who also emphasised the preference for the use of soft mobility.

A Technological Hub

The mayor also stated that he believes that Porto “has the conditions to be a ‘hub’, a centre from the point of view of technology companies” and that this new space will be “dynamic” in the context of the Metropolitan Area.

No dates were given for advancing the project that had already been proposed in September, during the campaign for the municipal elections, by the then candidate of the Porto Primeiro coalition (NC/PPM) for the Porto City Council, Nuno Cardoso.

The former mayor also proposed burying Avenida AEP for 70 million euros, creating a park in the new Special Economic Zone Parque Ramalde in the coming years.

Attractive economic zone

"We want to create a very attractive special economic zone for companies from all over the world that want to enter Europe, and enter through the door of Porto, through the door of Parque Ramalde and the special economic zone," Nuno Cardoso told journalists at the time.

The project, by architect Martim Neiva, José António Lameiras (number two on the ticket) and Nuno Cardoso himself, aimed to "qualify the space" of the current industrial area and would take "between 10 and 15 years" to develop.