Prime Minister Costa said Portugal must receive “highly qualified managers for areas such as agriculture, which needs to hire many people along with other fundamental sectors for the country’s competitiveness with a significant impact on territorial balances”.
On the other hand, it was also necessary to encourage foreign students and researchers to come to Portugal particularly for Masters’ and PhD courses as they could have an enormous potential to internationalise the universities and bolster the scientific system.
Today, more than a fifth of the population is aged over 65 and it is estimated that within 30 years this number will have increased to 35 percent, so the Portuguese National Health service has to be prepared to respond to the pressures of an ageing population, which will require many more young people, he said.