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: Home : Why Madeira
Madeira is presently one the best locations in the E.U. for companies with operations in the European single market and worldwide.
With reduced direct and indirect taxation, adequate infrastructures, competitive operational costs, safety and quality of life, Madeira is positioned to provide investors with a unique package of benefits, offering a wide range of solutions to enhance the efficiency and performance of various forms of investment.
Moreover, Madeira’s preferential tax regime has not only been approved by Portugal but also by the European Union as a valid form of State aid for regional development, providing the IBC of Madeira with a stable and fully regulated and supervised business environment, thus adding to its international image of credibility and transparency. Why Madeira? A fast growing economyMadeira, an integral part of Portugal fully integrated in the E.U., is located in the Atlantic Ocean, 900 km southwest of Lisbon.
The archipelago, with a total population of nearly 254,000 inhabitants, has the city of Funchal as its most important centre. Madeira has been the fastest-growing region of Portugal and one of the highest in the European Union in the last decades.
The growth of the Madeiran economy and its consequent appeal to international investors have been the result of the island’s consistently low inflation rate, low direct and indirect taxation, and its extremely competitive operational costs, in comparison with other European locations. A significant contribution to Madeira’s economic growth has been brought about by Madeira’s IBC, the island’s main tool for attracting foreign investment. Madeira's IBC has been formally approved by the European Union as a legitimate programme of economic development. Such fact, coupled with Madeira's IBC full integration in the Portuguese and the E.U.’s legal system, have made of Madeira not only an efficient investment location, but also a well-regulated business centre regarded by the OECD as a model to follow. Competitive operational costsMadeira offers low operational costs when in comparison with other European countries.
In fact, in spite of the recent rate of growth that Madeira has experienced in recent years, the cost of human resources and the price of several goods and services are still very competitive when directly compared with other European locations, allowing companies to face considerably lower costs when establishing operations in Madeira. There are several examples of this, namely the acquisition or purchase of office space in and around the capital city Funchal.
As a result of a strong property development in recent years, there are several options in location and costs, but as a reference, the rent of an office located in a prime business location would cost no more than 20 euros per square meter per month. Other locations, still within Funchal, but outside the main business centres, would cost around 15 to 18 euros per square meter per month. In addition, Madeira also offers very competitive telecommunications and energy costs and the general costs of living are relatively low. Local supportMadeira offers investors a pro-business attitude as well as a deep commitment by the Madeiran authorities and the local population to develop the island’s economy by encouraging and welcoming foreign investment and the consequent transfer of know-how.
Companies setting up in Madeira, therefore, benefit from a wide range of supporting services, private and public, in most areas of activity.
These include assistance in the incorporation of new companies, consultancy services, accountancy, legal advice, recruitment agencies, financial, insurance and banking services, amongst others, which are provided with high standards of quality. In addition, Madeira benefits from an advanced level of administrative autonomy with regard to mainland Portugal, allowing Madeira to have its own Regional Tax Office with sufficient powers to issue rulings and notices regarding investments and activities to be performed within the ambit of the IBC of Madeira. Madeira infrastructuresAvailable to investors are several conference rooms and office centres providing office space for rental, as well as laboratories and a local university, with several courses ranging from Biology and Chemistry to Electronics and several Engineering courses. The Madeira University has, in addition, a cooperation with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, for a Master Degree in Human-Computer Interaction.
Additionally, Madeira benefits from a Submarine Cable Station, hosted in the “Madeira Datacenter”, operating several international optical submarine cables, allowing interconnectivity with national and international SDH networks and providing, as such, significant advantages in terms of quality, cost, bandwidth and scalability.
Another available infrastructure is the Internet Gateway provided by Marconi Internet Direct (MID). This MID offers international Internet access without any kind of contention and using diversity in the access to international backbones. The IP platform has its international connectivity distributed by: 3 PoPs (London, Amsterdam and Paris), peering connections with hundreds of major international ISPs and IP transits to Europe and the USA. LabourRecruitmentCompanies moving to Madeira benefit from the availability of a young and skilled workforce. Placing an advertisement in local and national newspapers is a very common procedure, as well as resorting to the local employment centre or a recruitment agency. The Association of Professionals of the Madeira's IBC (APCINM) has set up an on-line database with a large scope of CV’s, which may be accessed at www.ibc-jobs.com. Companies may also use this database to advertise their recruitment needs. Madeira’s University, as well as other local technical schools, are a good source of skilled professionals. It is also possible to recruit from a large pool of Madeirans studying in Portuguese universities or working abroad. S.D.M. is also available to provide support in the recruitment process and to avail the large number of CV's presently in its database.
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