Famalicão marks 41 years as a city as Mário Passos and João Cerejeira highlight progress

Housing, infrastructure and environmental investment will enable the municipality to take a “qualitative leap”, believes Mário Passos. The state must approach these areas differently, argues João Cerejeira.

A qualitative leap for Famalicão: housing, infrastructure and the environment

Mário Passos, Mayor of Famalicão, says that “there is a set of economic indicators” that clearly demonstrate how the municipality has progressed over the years. He was speaking yesterday on the JN/TSF programme, discussing development across the Famalicão area on the day that marks 41 years since it was elevated to city status.

He argues that the territory’s progress has been driven by collective effort. “We’ve been moving forward thanks to community work. We get on with it, set goals and try to outdo ourselves today,” he said, while pointing to what he described as the largest investment programme in the municipality’s history.

Passos highlighted ongoing projects focused on housing, infrastructure and the environment. “When everything is finished, we’ll make a qualitative leap compared with what we have today,” he believes.

Education and higher learning as a foundation in the municipality

João Cerejeira, a university lecturer and economics researcher, emphasised Famalicão’s advances in education. In his view, progress is not only visible in facilities, but also in the attendance of university-level institutions within the municipal area. “Famalicão made the leap that positioned it to transform its traditional sectors,” he observed.

Passos, meanwhile, stressed that education has been a “cornerstone” and a “strong commitment” for successive municipal administrations in recent years. He said that technology centres in the area-particularly linked to meat and the textile industry-alongside Higher Education institutions, provide routes not only for research but also for transferring knowledge into businesses. He pointed to Tecmeat – the Agro-food Competence Centre for the Meat Sector as an example of this approach in practice.

Tecmeat, applied research and knowledge transfer

Dora Gaspar, Tecmeat’s Director-General, said the aim is to “seek to turn scientific knowledge into applied research that can create value in companies”. She added that the centre also generates value “through upskilling its staff and through knowledge turned into processes and services”.

“Our companies are aware of the challenges they face and the work that needs doing on meat, meat production and the technologies to be used,” she noted.

In the Famalicão area, 500 companies are created each year. “There is significant dynamism and, for that reason, public bodies have to pay attention to this,” said João Cerejeira. He added that while the municipality’s average salary has been rising, it still has not reached the national average.

Cerejeira pointed to housing that is more affordable than in large urban centres, access to schools and healthcare, and mobility as advantages that help explain why Famalicão has “grown a great deal”. “Central Government has to look at these territories differently,” the researcher concluded.