In a statement, the Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) Algarve, which manages the programme, said that the ten projects will allow “an investment of more than €3 million” with the aim of creating or maintaining “several dozen jobs”, with a “contribution of €2 million from European Union funds”.
This support is aimed at small companies that “identified opportunities provided by the pandemic and created, converted or adapted their services for the production and marketing of masks, visors, advertising or even in the certification of products”.
According to the CCDR / Algarve, these companies bet on “new or improved investments, services, manufacturing methods, logistics or distribution” related to fighting the pandemic.
A factory unit planned for São Bartolomeu de Messines, in the municipality of Silves, under an Italian Portuguese investment, is one of the projects contemplated, intended for the “labelling and sterilisation of medical devices and other hospital articles and equipment”.
Another of the approved projects concerns a custom textile production business in Albufeira, which has since been converted into a surgical mask assembly line, but which needs remodelling works, the acquisition of an automatic mask machine and an individual packaging system.
CCDR also lists “a project aimed at producing a 70 percent alcoholic gel for hand disinfection, a non-corrosive bactericide for application on surfaces in contact with food and a surface sanitiser, with alcohol and bactericide, without chlorine, for application in various spaces and surfaces”.
The other approved projects “are centred on the acquisition of equipment or reinforcement of the productive capacity for the production of masks, visors, barriers, partitions, advertising and various supports intended for commercial establishments”, continues the note.
The CRESC ALGARVE 2020 Operational Programme launched three notices designed to support projects in all areas of activity associated with Covid-19, for which it reserved an indicative amount of €12 million, in order to respond to immediate and medium-term needs of companies and institutions in the Algarve.
Currently, a few dozen applications are being considered, and more approvals should be known by the end of this week, concludes the CCDR.