Madeira News Blog

I just liked this picture of Uncle Bertie, delivering a speech about how his "dreams for autonomy" have not yet been realised, and the "the story will build itself stone by stone, until the objectives have been met". It looks more like he is telling a fishing story after a few jugs of vinho seco if you ask me.

(20th July). ‘Jardim Discredits Poll – The president of the government says that it is a strategy to distract the voters’. Referring to the election poll about people’s intentions to vote ‘if the national elections were held today’, carried out by the Diário (see yesterday’s blog), Jardim says it is a tactic to disinterest voters. He claims that the Diário always carries out surveys that show the PSD in a strong position, because then people will decide that there is no need for them to vote. Why not get your pet newspaper to do one Uncle Bertie, that way you can waste a bit more taxpayers money, and at the same time use the information to discredit the Diário … I don’t think you would take up that challenge somehow.

‘Parties Prepare Cheap Campaign – Some political parties say they have less than a thousand Euros to spend per district’. The main party leaders are busy doing their accounts, with two election campaigns to fund, and these have to be submitted to an auditing function within the next few weeks. The task is not yet completed, but it is becoming clear that there is less money for propaganda and festivities, and budgets are expected to be between 30 and 60% lower than 4 years ago. The CDS / PP says it will spend a third of what it had in 2005, and the spend will be restricted to just what the state gives the party for this purpose. The socialists will have cuts of at least 20 – 30%. The Left Block of Madeira (BE) says it will have little over €1,000 to spend across each the 11 districts of the two islands, and their campaign will be very modest. The BE coordinator also says it would be disrespectful to spend too much in a time when people are suffering financial hardship and unemployment is so high. The social democrat coordinator says it is too early to tell, but he expects the largest party of PSD ‘to follow the general trend’. As an example he said that the forthcoming festival (rally) in Chão da Lagoa will cut back to having a ‘B list’ artist (group/musician?). Ok times are tough in politics, great for the population at large me thinks with less hype and eyesores. However, the council here in Ribeira Brava arranged a almost surprise concert night here for last night, presumably funded by taxpayers money, but with no political presence. Was this an attempt to gain ‘brownie points’ with the electorate using public money, or an act of pure benevolence with the PSD gaining no advantage whatsoever? 

Just 6 articles in the main political section of the Diário today, but 5 were election / candidate related.

In the economy :

(20th July). ‘Zona Franca On A New Black List – The Italian government places Madeira amongst the financial paradises’. Italian ‘anti-crisis’ legislation has named the tax advantageous facility at Caniçal as an undesired offshore tax haven because of new tighter criteria, according to an Italian newspaper. The new law which pinpoint locations where businesses would pay less than half the tax (13.75%) they would pay in Italy, means the government would take action against them. "The surprise is that with these new parameters there are some important European partners such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland and some fiscal zones in Portugal (such as Madeira) and Spain (like the Canary Islands) that are likely to fall inflexibly under the Italian law, in the same way that as the Cayman Islands or the Cook Islands do", said La Repubblica newspaper. That’s typical of Italian politicians to be a step behind the rest of Europe, that already accept Madeira’s tax zone as open and transparent in it’s operations … somebody needs to buy them all a cornetto to cool off those overactive political brains.

’100 Biggest : Sá Employs More Than One Thousand – The Madeiran group counts on 1,178 employees in the units spread around 5 regions of Madeira and also in Lisbon’. It looks that this is the Diário featured company this week, and as it’s a household name I will cover it today. Fifty-three years after opening a small shop (Pérola dos Cafés), Jorge Sá now heads a group that is one of the largest employers on Madeira. It has 20 ‘points of sale’, of which 4 are traditional Hiper Sá stores, and several others with different brand names, as well as a hotel in the Azores. 633 of the employees are employed in Funchal. 76% of the employees are women, and overall there is a "curious" average age of around 36. The company takes its training seriously, ensuring that employees have 35 hours a year. Staff costs amount to €12.8 million per annum, and turnover for the group was €140.4 million in 2008. So is the Diário suggesting that Jorge Sá prefers to employ ‘young chicks’, I for one wouldn’t believe that!

‘Farmers Earn 60% More In Eight Years’. President Jardim said yesterday that the average income of the Madeiran farmer increased from €2115 to €3379 between 2000 and 2008, citing official data from Portugal. Banana producers, on average, increased their income by €317 between 2007 and 2008, he said at the Banana Show in Madalena do Mar, as production rose by 11%. Banana exports also increased by 10.7%. It is hard to believe that so much manual effort brings so little reward to farmers. In some countries in the world farmers wouldn’t get out of bed for less than 10 times that.

‘Expomadeira Exceeds Expectations – The Economic Activities Fair of Madeira closed yesterday in Funchal’. The results were very good, with the attendance of public and businesses / exhibitors, and even sales, that covered the 9 days of the event. 73,000 people came, 2,000 more than last year, and that was with a full day still to go. The event does provide entertainment and facilities for families, so it is not just a dull day of business. This year was the 26th year for the event.

(19th July). ‘Ricardo Salgado, President OF BES, Says That The Worst For The Banks Has Now Passed’. In an interview with the Diário, he states that in world banking the worst has passed, because there is now money available, but we are still in a negative economic cycle that no one knows exactly when it will end. As for his own bank Espirito Santo, he says it was one of the few in Europe that managed to raise it’s own capital without state intervention or help, and is now looking at developing new business in Africa.

Politics

(11th July). ‘GR Wants To Silence Opinion’. The National Commission for Elections, and the Media Regulatory Authority, yesterday received a complaint from the government of Madeira. The complaint is aimed at the broadcasting media, expressing concern that programs of opinions about political parties are against the organs of power in Madeira, the responsibility of the social democrat ruling party, and there is an absence of counter opinion. The complaint reminds that we are now in a pre-election period, and that programs that were suspended before the European elections, are now intentionally being shown to the detriment of the PSD-M.

(10th July). ‘Gama Denies 10 Minutes To A Deputy Of PS-M – Júlia Caré wanted to say goodbye to São Bento with a piece about Madeira. She asked in April to speak on 1st July. Jaime Gama wouldn’t allow it’. The president of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, and of the same political party as Caré, representative for Madeira at the end of her mandate, suggested she should turn to the newspapers to say what she wanted … she did. He told her he had read her interview in Madeira’s newspaper, and should return to the Diário to say whatever it was she wanted, leaving her somewhat perplexed. It seems in the interview she did in the Diário, she expressed her discontent with the procedures and bureaucracy in the Assembly of the Republic.

‘Election Posters Of PS-M Only In São Vicente’. However from Monday the socialist party aims to start posting it’s propaganda in Funchal, the second district on Madeira to suffer. The independent candidate in Calheta says she will not put up her posters until the first half of August. It seems each party has its own timetable and priority locations.

(9th July). ‘War Against The Microchip Reminds Of Seat Belts – PSD-M has produced a proposal to exclude Madeira from ‘micro chipped’ registration plates’. 16 years after President Jardim and his sidekick Jaime Ramos fought a battle to reject legislation in Madeira about the compulsory wearing of seatbelts. history is about to repeat itself. This time it is against a national programme to  fit all cars with electronic tagging devices, which will become mandatory for all vehicle owners in Portugal. On Wednesday the social democrats of Madeira produced a draft decree in the assembly, which will exclude Madeira from that legislation. They justify this stance by saying that the ‘chip’ is to some extent to control tolls on ‘pay roads’, and there are none here. They also say that the initiative is an invasion of the privacy of citizens, making reference to a ‘big brother’ surveillance system. The chips will also be used to trace stolen cars, to ensure that car insurance is up to date, and trace owners of outstanding fines. Another piece of Jardim stupidity, though not quite to the standard of fighting the compulsory wearing of seatbelts. I for one would be very very happy to know that all the cars that are on our roads all have valid insurance, and that there is another deterrent to car theft. I would think that only criminals would be anti such legislation … enough said!

Economy

(11th July). Today’s main news headline : ‘Insolvencies Triple – The number of companies and entities going through processes of insolvency increased in the first 6 months of this year, compared to the same period of 2008, from 17 to 50′. During the same period the creation of new companies fell by a third, from 553 to 369, the worst performance in Portugal. Lots of statistics comparing Madeira with Portugal, and it certainly seems that in both these factors that Madeira is suffering these aspects of the recession worse than most.

‘Inflation Fell 1.6% in June – Compared to the same month in 2008, much due to the influence of transport’. The National Statistics Institute (INE) released the data yesterday, showing inflation to be -1.6%, still lower than the -1.2% in declared in May. The main areas of falling prices were in transportation, food, and non-alcoholic beverages.

(10th July). ‘Banif And Banco Mais In Negotiations – The get together could result in a merger’. The two banks are in an advanced phase of negotiations that could result in a fusion in various financial activities. Meanwhile the insolvent Banco Privado Português (BPP) was sold to the Sociedade Comercial Orey Antunes for €1.

(9th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘People Pay The Cost Of An Anti Sócrates Whim – The Madeira parliament insists on the unfounded idea of bringing the prime minister of Portugal to submit himself to an interrogation about the controversial Finance Bill. And it goes to the point of paying for input from the constitutionalist Sérvulo Correia’. The Legislative Assembly of Madeira does not have amongst its powers the ability to summon members of the Government of the Republic for discussions or hearings. Thus, the call of the social democrats (PSD-M) to hold a debate in which the prime minister participates, is flawed with illegality according to expert opinion. This is the main conclusion of a legal review, requested from an expert on constitutional affairs, Sérvulo Correia, and which was presented yesterday to the parliamentary leaders of Madeira. Given this verdict, the PSD leaders have modified the proposal to ‘invite Prime Minister Jóse Sócrates to a debate’.

The population of Funchal helped most of the opposition parties in Sunday’s European elections, with most of them achieving their best results in the capital. Whilst throughout Madeira all parties had their ups and downs, the PSD-M social democrats, whose Madeiran candidate lives in Funchal, had a relatively poor result in percentage terms, although slightly better than in 2004 in the same elections. PSD-M achieved its best results in Calheta, Faial, and Ilha, all around the 68-74% mark. Their worst results came in Funchal, Machico, and Caniço with 43-46%. In Achada da Cruz, CDS, PCP,BE, and MPT failed to obtain a single vote. With an overall abstention in voting of almost 60%, it is also worth noting that in addition Madeirans submitted 2,521 blank voting forms on Sunday, and 2,896 spoiled ballot papers, altogether 5.2% of the total, and ‘invalid votes’ actually ranked between BE (Left Block) and MPT (Earth Party). Quite a few spoiled ballot papers carried comments about the previous MEP for PSD, Sérgio Marques, who was dismissed from re-election by President Jardim after he commented about the poor positioning of the Madeira candidate on the national PSD party candidate nomination list.

The absence of the PND (New Democrats) in Sunday’s elections distorts analysis somewhat, but if Sunday’s results were applied to the current regional assembly, then the PSD would lose 5 seats still keeping an overall majority, with more seats for the PS, CDS (Christian Democrats), and the communists. The PSD-M achieved 64% of the regional election vote in 2007, but that worked out at 52.5% on Sunday.

’46 Breaches Detected In Offshore – An inspection by CMVM included financial companies with businesses on Madeira’. Referring to the ‘free Zone’ of Madeira, a tax advantaged rather than an offshore operation, for foreign companies wishing to trade on advantageous terms by setting up businesses based on Madeira. An inspection of Free Zone activities by the Commission of Security Markets (CMVM) and the Bank of Portugal, has identified over recent years 46 serious breaches of regulations, that have resulted in fines. Some of the infringements related to money laundering and the granting of credit to entities in off-limit locations. Another 28 violations are mentioned, but (yet?) no charges followed. There has been quite a bit of press coverage recently about a dislike in Portugal of Madeira’s ‘offshore’ arrangements, and there are moves afoot from various quarters aimed at forcing the shut-down of the Free Zone here.

‘Owners Of Cargo Ships Lose €2.6 million’. In the first 22 weeks of this year, there were 2,500 less shipping containers transported, and a 12% reduction in containers coming from the continent to Madeira. The 6 companies that do the ‘Madeira Run’, have transported only 19,000 containers, as opposed to the 22,500 in the same period last year (These are the large stackable metal or GRP containers that measure 20 or 40 feet). An economist explains that because these are small companies with more flexibility, it is easier to cope with the reduction in cargo, and survive the competition from the large companies.

Madeira will have a new fishing boat in the next few days. The €3 million investment in the ‘Progresso Futuro’ was supported by the Madeira government. It was built in Mondego / Figueira da Foz, and is designed for Tuna fishing. It weights 261 tons, is 32 metres long, and can travel at up to 12 knots. It can carry up to 150 tons of Tuna fish well preserved to keep it fresh, and will create jobs for up to 20 people.