Madeira News Blog

(15th June). ‘Defects in construction must be claimed within one year’. The law says that the warranty period within which the owner of a property can report construction defects is 5 years, but what many don’t know is that that to take the matter through the courts the matter has to be reported within a year of the defect discovery. That comes out of a ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) on 13 January 2009. The matter was discovered after a case of two semi-detached houses constructed in Funchal went to the courts, and it was ruled that the developer /owner had to engage the constructor / contractor within one year of the fault showing itself, at the penalty of forfeiting any claim. In the case mentioned the property was handed over in February 2001, but the owners sent a letter of complaint to the contractor for construction defects and requesting repairs: for infiltration of water, uneven floor, peeling paint, broken stones, shutters with holes, cracks in walls, poor ventilation system, etc … but didn’t send it until March 2002.

According to the weather people, we are in for a spell of bad weather on Madeira. The temperature is going to drop starting today, and winds will pick up with gusts up to 50 km/h, more in the high zones. The north coast is due to have heavy rain. Tomorrow winds could pick up gusts of as much as 100km/h tomorrow, but matters should start to calm down again on Wednesday.

‘SATA Grows On Madeira – President of the company talks of a slight increase in passengers’. In an interview he gave, the president of SATA (the Azores based airline) said that its Madeira operation had seen a slight increase in passenger numbers, whereas other routes had suffered a 4 to 5% drop in the first 4 months of this year. He also emphasised the importance of renewing the fleet, because some aircraft were no longer manufactured and were becoming very expensive to maintain. SATA have already acquired replacement aircraft to operate the service between Madeira and Porto Santo.

(14th June). A new hotel, the ‘Santa Cruz Plaza’ was inaugurated on Saturday in the ‘city expansion zone’. The investment was around €15 million.

The Spanish company ‘Armas’ that operates the ferry ship between Madeira, Portugal, and the Canary islands, has established a Portuguese subsidiary company on Madeira, 100% owned by the parent company. The move is seen as a sign that Armas sees growth and expansion opportunities in sea transportation in Portugal.  Naveira Armas is preparing to bring in a new ferry ship to operate the existing routes that serve Madeira. The new 176 metre vessel will have more cabins, and 9,000 m2 of passenger accommodation over three decks. As well as restaurants and bars, it will also have a swimming pool and large sun terraces, and can travel at up to 25 knots.

(15th June). ‘Internationalization Yields Millions – AFA, Promosoft, and the Sousa Group invoice €80 million a year outside of Madeira, showing that they are competitive at an international level’. The construction giant AFA (in Madeiran terms anyway) now makes 35% of it’s income outside of Madeira, and has a 100 of its own workers, dozens of vehicles away, and employs 700 other workers in it’s outside contract locations. It has contracts worth €210 million in Angola, Mauritania and Senegal. The group Sousa makes 20% of its revenue on the continent. Both companies have previously been accused of getting contracts based on ‘political favours’. The technology company Promosoft started in Funchal around 20 years ago with 8 employees, and now has 170 employees with a presence in six countries, and plans to expand to Latin America, Romania and Malta. 75% of its revenue comes from international markets.

(23rd May). The day’s main news headline :  ‘PS-M Rebellious In S. Bento – They broke the party loyalty to defend a paper about the new hospital on Madeira, "a project of common interest". It was the second rebellion in a week’. Elected members of the socialist party, who represent Madeira in the assembly of the republic, have twice this week voted against their party, in the latest incident voting in favour of a proposal that their own party rejected. Maximiano Martins, Jacinto Serrão and Júlia Caré, all voted for a paper written by a minor opposition party, that recommended to the government of José Sócrates to consider building the new hospital in Madeira, as a ‘project of common interest’. This status would mean that the state funds the complete project, despite Madeira being an autonomous region. Several days before, the three politicians had rebelled and voted for another proposal submitted by Madeira, that aimed to reduce the level of social security contributions payable by Madeiran farmers. The Diário puts a bit of a negative spin on the loyalty of the three to their party, even more so by making it the lead story of the day, but in voting for Madeira rather than the PS they are certainly looking forward to be re-elected by the Madeiran voters. Anyway, what is important is that the republic is not going take ‘state’ responsibility for a new hospital project, and I think this was an intelligent bluff by the government of Madeira, who were in a no-lose situation.

The other main headline today relates to yesterday’s story (below) : ‘Trade Union leader Doesn’t Believe In The Jobs Of Jaime – The parliamentary leader of the PSD-M insists on the creation of 2,000 jobs in the area of civil construction. The president of the trade union says that this is an electioneering announcement. "Seeing is believing" ‘. Diamantino Alturas said the announcement by Jaime Ramos "is an electioneering story, and that Mr Jaime Ramos goes around with members of the PSD, through several regions of Madeira, reporting that everything is well done, and now he is announcing new projects and jobs. Hopefully, this is all true. Now, I just need to see to believe". The union leader justifies his pessimism by the fact that neither the councils (câmaras) or the government have any money, adding "EU funds have decreased, and as we all know the great works were financed with EU funds". He states that 7 thousand jobs have been lost in the sector over the last 3 years. Even the news about the building of the new Savoy Hotel doesn’t cheer him up, because these are jobs created at the expense of other jobs, with a similar situation at the Madeira Palácio Hotel, where work is currently stopped. As for residential developments, the prospects are not encouraging. "There is a housing stock of about 20 thousand empty homes that are available to sell or for rent. If you cannot sell or rent these, with certainty the private sector will not invest in more and create new jobs”. It’s not often I agree with trade union leaders, but I do on this one, and I shall be looking closely at the news over the coming months and totting up the number of project / jobs announced by the government of Madeira.

(22nd May). A petition raised by residents in Faial was discussed on Thursday, in a sub committee of the legislative assembly of Madeira. The residents want to legalise the extraction of inert materials (sand and stones etc.), after illegal activity going on in the area for years was eventually stopped. Jobs and the local economy to some extent were supported by the activity, prompting locals to take the action.

‘Ramos Announces Two Thousand Jobs’. The parliamentary leader of Madeira (Social Democrat) announced on Thursday that two thousand jobs would be created in the construction industry of Madeira. "Employment in construction will be a reality, because companies will need more staff, at least two thousand people," he said. In related news he said that at around 70 new jobs would be created for locals with the construction of the new golf course at Ponta do Pargo, where 200 workers would be needed to complete the project by 2010. This didn’t even make the front page news of the Diário, indicating to me that they don’t place much weight on the word of Jaime Ramos or the PSD-M.