OPEN Inauguration Ceremony

Last August 24th, Marinha Grande received the Official Inauguration Ceremony of OPEN’s Incubation Centre. His Excellency The Prime Minister of Portugal, José Sócrates, chaired this ceremony.

Doutor Manuel Pinho, Minister for Economy, the Civil Governor of Leiria, the President of Marinha Grande Town Council, other politicians, government members, businessmen and representative of public and associativism-related organisations were among the three hundred participants in the event.

The ceremony officially started with the Prime Minister unveiling a commemorative plaque, an act immediately followed by a short message from Joaquim Menezes, the President of the Board of Directors of OPEN. In his speech, Joaquim Menezes mentioned the History of this project, whose starting idea arose in 1996, yet it strongly developed only in 1998 with the Territorial Pact for Employment in Marinha Grande. OPEN Association was formally created in November 2002, having as promoters Centimfe, Cefamol, Marinha Grande Town Council, ANJE and INOVA. Currently, OPEN has about 50 associate-members; among these are town councils, universities, and several associations and companies.

Referring to the goals of this project, the President of OPEN considered Innovation as a decisive factor for competitiveness in today’s globalised economy and mentioned that one of the goals of this project is to create the proper environment to entrepreneurship, intending (with OPEN) to support the development of innovative companies, sufficiently sustained and dynamic, prepared to demand and apply new ways of business, new processes and new methods. Issuing a challenge to all those present at the event, Joaquim Menezes described OPEN as a “project open to everyone, and that will cooperate with those that face Initiative, Innovation, Willpower and Sacrifice Spirit as a way of accomplishing a Life´s Project”.  

In his communication, José Sócrates emphasised the importance of business investment and entrepreneurship to Portuguese economic development, committing himself to help to materialize the good ideas of Portuguese businessmen. About OPEN, he quoted António Gedeão “in each adventure the important is not to arrive is to depart”, considering OPEN a starting point to adventure.

The ceremony proceeded with a visit to the facilities of OPEN’s Incubation Centre. During the visit, was possible to the Prime Minister to confirm and to highlight the excellent facilities and the proper environment to the development and concretization of good ideas, in an extremely competitive market.

With 4600m2, OPEN may host up to 8 industrial-type projects, in modules with 125 m2 of production area and 84 m2 for restrooms and offices area, and up to 24 services-type companies, in modules of 67 m2. Beyond the areas for the companies, OPEN offers to the entrepreneurs several common spaces as meeting rooms, multimedia room, IT room, videoconference room and a multifunctional room. OPEN provides also some support services such as mail reception and distribution, communication services, general office service, consulting service, and support on financing sources and incentive programs.

OPEN is a result of an investment of about 3.1 million Euros, from which about 2 million were financed by POE – Centro Program.

During his visit to OPEN, The Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates had the opportunity to meet the promoters of the projects that are going to be incubated in OPEN, and whom he encouraged to innovate, recommending, however that they shall both avoid to neglect competences in areas such as management and maintain a deep knowledge on the market trends and demands.

Now that the building is already inaugurated, OPEN will proceed with the selection of the first applications received, in order to be possible to welcome the first companies within the next months. To those that are interested, the application forms are available online at OPEN website (www.open.pt), where you may also find information about the admission conditions and the conveniences and services that OPEN provides.