“Terms of adhesion to the Diaspora Investment Support Network will be signed. We are talking about a network that has 300 entities and is essential for us to connect services such as the different areas of governance, regional entities, municipalities or even business associations that have and can support diaspora investment [in Portugal] and have instruments for this purpose”, Paulo Cafôfo told Lusa.

For the Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities, it is “a large family that will seek to attract investment and people” to Portugal.

“We are talking about five million people among the Portuguese who live abroad and those of Portuguese descent, and there is an economic dimension here that has to be boosted”, said Cafôfo.

The idea is that these emigrants and Portuguese descendants are attracted to make investments in the country, more specifically in their lands of origin, allowing the development of the local economy, but also the national economy, the official explained to Lusa.

“We are talking about the economic importance that Portuguese communities may have in the development of the country and in the internationalization of our economy, with advantages” in the fight against depopulation and desertification of the territory, since more investment also attracts “more people, particularly in low-density [population] or inland territories”, he considered.