Training programs will be targeting “executives, managers, workers, and students” and will be conducted in collaboration with “universities, polytechnics, and national research centers,” stated the confederation led by Armindo Monteiro, in a statement released today.
This initiative is part of the ‘AI Nation Portugal’ movement, aimed at involving companies and the executive in a “collaborative platform for capacity building and knowledge transfer to position AI as a driver of economic, social, and industrial transformation in the country, making Portugal more competitive in the digital economy,” it further notes.
In its initial phase, the capacity-building courses under ‘AI Nation Portugal’ aim to reach “50,000 companies and half a million people,” with funding coming from public sources (through funds designated for digital transition) and private sources (via sponsorship from large tech companies).
This movement and its programs will be presented on Thursday during the B9+ European Digital Summit, a European summit dedicated to the digital future, organized by CIP and the Portuguese Association for Communications Development (APDC) in Lisbon.
The goal is to “mobilize companies and collaborate with the executive in implementing public policies that accelerate the adoption of AI,” noted the CIP director-general, cited in the same release.
Rafael Alves Rocha also argues that reducing bureaucracy and streamlining public policies is “essential to increase the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy in the global market.”
The B9 group unites 12 business confederations from 12 European countries, and this summit will discuss three strategic areas: European digital competitiveness, regulatory simplification, and Artificial Intelligence, highlights CIP.
The summit will coincide with the D9+ interministerial meeting, an informal alliance of 13 European Union member states at the digital forefront, happening in the Portuguese capital.
This group was created in 2016, and it is the first time that the Portuguese government is presiding since its accession (in October 2020).
