29% of Madeira's IBC new companies are high-tech

The number of new ICT companies licensed to operate within the framework of the International Business Centre of Madeira (IBCM) confirms its ability to modernize and diversify the island’s economy.

29% of the new companies licensed in Madeira’s International Business Centre during this year are from the ICT sector. Such numbers reveal, amongst other aspects, the effectiveness of the promotional plan designed to target this type of companies in the international markets.

The continuous growth of the ICT sector in Madeira also highlights the business-friendly environment which characterizes the island. Such is based on a very competitive framework created by the tax incentives of the IBCM and both the existence of very qualified human resources and efficient management and supporting services. The reduced taxation, the quality of its telecommunications infrastructure and its status as a major hub for fiber optic cables with its geographic location are other advantages that turn Madeira into a hotspot for ICT companies.

The synergies involving the University of Madeira and the Start-up Madeira structure, as well as the quality of life and the safety of the island, are also important factors for the development of this sector of economic activity in Madeira.

As part of the promotional programme of the IBCM, SDM has participated in major international technological events, since they generate opportunities to contact and meet companies and start-ups from several countries and different areas of the high-tech world. In the last few years, and in order to present the International Business Centre of Madeira, SDM participated at the Web Summit which took place in Lisbon, and also promoted the IBCM in other international technological events with enormous impact, such as the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the Viva Technology in Paris.

Another aspect that shows the impact of ICT sector for the internationalization of Madeira’s economy is the diversity of countries from which the companies have originated (13), most of them from Europe, such as Germany, Russia, France, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Malta, Portugal, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, Ukraine, Slovenia, and others from important economies such as the case of the United States of America.