Entrepreneurship in Portugal

The other day I read an article which stated that Portugal was the country which had done more reforms to improve doing business (World Bank 2008).
In spite of that there is still a lot to do to improve the situation. According to the European Innovation Scoreboard, Portugal was only ranked 18th out of the 25 countries of the European Union. The article outlined that the main reason behind this poor result were related to education and the lack of skilled workers.

The perception I have of entrepreneurship in Portugal is that it is quite rare to find someone willing to start his own business. For example among the students who graduated with me I cannot remember one of them who had created his company or was thinking of doing so in the near future. The main goal for graduates in Portugal is to find a safe job within a company rather than create their own business. I believe the Educational system is largely responsible for this situation, like the E.I.S (European Innovation Scoreboard) mentions. During the four years of my bachelor degree, Entrepreneurship was a topic which was addressed almost any times and none of the Master Programs offered at my university were related to this topic. A reform of the programs of the Bachelor and Master degrees are inevitable in my opinion in order to improve the situation and change the mentality of graduates. As it has been mentioned in previous lectures creating your own business involves a lot of risks and no incentives and support are offered the situation will not evolve.

To conclude I believe that the Portuguese Government´s efforts should be praised and are a good effort towards the improvement of the Entrepreneurship in the country. Universities and other Public organisms should follow this example since the Government itself cannot do everything.

References:

- European Innovation Scoreboard (2006) retrieved at:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/5&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
on the 3rd September 2008
- The World Bank (2008) "Doing Business 2008" retrieved at: http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&theSitePK=469372&piPK=64165421&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000310607_20071226165245
on the 3rd September 2008