According to the report, ‘Doing Business 2014," Portugal has moved from 29th place to 31st in an evaluation of 189 developed countries of the ease of setting up a company, funding it and doing business.
Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand lead the global ranking in the section for ease of starting a business. Next in the top 10 are the United States, Denmark, Malaysia, South Korea, Georgia, Norway and the UK.
The mayor of Tavira, the socialist party’s Jorge Botelho, was today elected to chair the Intermunicipal Community Algarve (AMAL), succeeding the former mayor of Faro Macario Correia.
The socialist party now dominates the Algarve’s councils after success in the municipal elections of September 29th.
The Algarve has two projects on the shortlist of nominees for the 6th "Construction Awards' organised by Building magazine. The awards pick out the very best in the categories of construction, architecture, real estate and engineering.
Villa Escarpa in Lagos, a project by Mário Martins, is in the running for 'Best Private Project’ in the architecture section, and the Epic Sana Algarve, a hotel in Albufeira, is in the running for the 'Best Tourist Enterprise' in the real estate section.
The mayors of Vila Real de Santo António and Castro Marim voiced their criticism today of the successive postponements by government of the project to dredge the Guadiana river between Spain and Portugal to allow larger craft to navigate the river, bringing much needed tourist income to this once busy area.
This work has been promised for years with zero action by successive governments.
Two adult vultures have been rescued and are recovering in the bird hospital in the Ria Formosa National Park. GNR environmental protection officers from Portimão took charge of the two large birds which are likely to have run out of energy on their annual migration to north Africa.
It turns out that Kate and Gerry McCann suppressed for five years ‘critical evidence’ that became the centrepiece of the recent BBC Crimewatch programme on the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.Findings by ex-MI5 agents long kept under wraps by the McCanns included the two e-fit images described in the Crimwatch programme by Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood as of “vital importance.”
A Portuguese mother who hid her baby in the boot of a car for over a year faces ten years in a French prison, as does her drunken husband.
The baby is underweight and undersized for its age having apparently spent its entire life in the boot of a car in the Dordogne.
A public employee has been convicted of stealing €250,000 and received a suspended sentence.
The Tribunal in Braga today sentenced a state employee to a four year suspended prison sentence. She worked in the local Conservatorio and stole the money over a period of years ‘for love.’
