The ZILS, Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone, under the management of aicep Global Parques offers a location with a clear atlantic vocation.

ZILS is located near the biggest deep water port on the Iberian Peninsula on the western atlantic coast – The Port of Sines. The Port of Sines, which is founded on a natural deep water shore, offers specialized terminals that allow the movement of a variety of goods. This port is in both East/West and North/South maritime routes crossing, making its location a strategic spot in the main international maritime routes confluence.

As far as accessibility is concerned, ZILS is served by a road-rail large capacity system integrated to one of the trans-European transport network main multimodal hubs.

ZILS (Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone) is the biggest industrial and logistical location area in Iberian Peninsula. ZILS has the capacity to receive industrial and service’s companies of whatever dimension from all over the world.

ZILS Sines - Europe’s Atlantic door

ZILS, the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone, is a vast area available for the development of industrial, logistical and services activities. At ZILS industrial lots is possible to install any kind of business. This flexibility, in the entrepreneurial project nature, combines with adaptive business models adjusted along the investment life cycle to finance the needed land.

The ZILS offer extensive land areas with privilege spaces for business development at competitive prices and low operational costs.

The industrial area has a full range of infrastructures, with all the needed utilities. These infrastructures are subject to continued investment, maintenace and update, allowing the industries and services to install at ZILS at any moment. The business center, of about 16000m2, complements ZILS’s offer as offices, meeting and conference rooms are offered.

Portugal 2020 is a partnership agreement adopted between Portugal and the European Commission that defines the programming principles that establish the territorial, social and economic development policy to promote in Portugal between 2014 and 2020.

Portugal will receive EUR 25 billion by 2020.

The Strategy for Research and Innovation of Portugal for a Smart Specialization in their national and regional components: North, Centre, Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve, Azores, Madeira is worth noting. It identifies the major smart strategies, which are themes with scientific, technological and economic expertise, in which Portugal and its regions hold comparative and competitive advantages or had revealed potential to emerge as such.

ZILS is part of NUT II – Alentejo, NUTS III – Alentejo Litoral, which means that it is covered by Alentejo 2020 Program. In terms of eligibility for European Investment Funds (ERDF, Cohesion Fund, ESF, EAFRD and EMFF), Region Alentejo can access co-financing rate of 85% of the Funds.
The Thematic Operational Programmes in the continent are:

• Competitiveness and internationalisation
• Social inclusion and employment
• Human capital
• Sustainability and efficiency in the use of resources

The ZILS provides to the investors the best location to do its investment, with a great entrepreneurial environment to do business. There are already some of the biggest national companies such as Galp, EDP, Sonae Indústria and Cimpor Group and international companies like Repsol. The current activity in Sines’s Region grants the status of main energetical and petrochemical center of the country and its deep water port is one of the biggest drivers of the country’s economy.

The portuguese market has businesses and privileged cultural relations with the seven countries that share the Portuguese language, the 5th more spoken in the world allowing that foreigner companies that invest in zils may easily access to this emerging markets. Among the countries with Portuguese language as official it is highlighted for its dimension Angola, Brasil and Mozambique.

To invest in ZILS is easy considering the simplicity of the needed procedures for setting a business. The active social policy in what concerns stability and entrepreneurship, innovation and burocracy reduction and the recent reforms of the legal and tax systems, create ideal conditions for the creation of a company and for its growth.

The investment in ZILS can also benefit from investment incentives, developed in the framework of the economical development public policies for promoting innovation and regional development.

The excellence of the conditions offered by ZILS can be represented trough the infrastructures or the vast and diversified offer in its socioeconomical surrounding. The surrounding of ZILS includes important urban centers with high populational dynamics and a multicultural society, proactive and hospitable. When investing in ZILS there is available an attractive labour market, with qualified workforce and competitive capacity, a calm labour environment and a modern regulamentation similar to the other European countries.

The surrounding of ZILS presents also a modern network of technological infrastructures and communication, as well as a wide range of institutions and service providers. The ZILS and its surrounding present together a group of competitive advantages for the investors that get installed here and a good environment for the development of all the economical activities.

The human resources are the main asset in fulfilling the entrepreneurial strategies of innovation and therefore the ability of innovation of the Portuguese companies testifies the quality and qualification of the labour market.

The diversity of skills that are recquired from a labour workforce that is able to ensure competitive performance is significant. Among these are the ability to work as a team, to communicate or to adjust to new entrepreneurial challenges. The answer to these demands in the qualification and recruitment of labour force places Portuguese companies in the Top3 (Innobarometer) when compared with other European countries (Innobarometer 2009).

The education has been a priority area of investment in Sines in the last years.

Sines has at the moment education establishments in primary education, a high school, a professional and technological school and a university centre. The school facilities have been renovated, namely in what concerns the primary education park, under the management of the municipality.

IEFP (Institute of Employment and Professional Training) develops active recruitment policies an important support element of the installation of your activity in Zils.