Costa invites young people to return to Portugal

&amp;NewLine;<p>António Costa during a visit to Vila Real as part of the mayoral elections to be held next month&amp;period; Invited young people to return to Portugal, stressing that "they are welcome" and that they will have "more support" if they return to Portugal&amp;period; <&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Costa invites young people to return to Portugal<&sol;h2>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>"Now that we are turning the page on the pandemic&amp;comma; now that we have started to move towards normality and thanks to vaccination&amp;comma; the pandemic seems to be under control and now that worldwide circulation is starting to pick up&amp;comma; it is time to tell the young people who have left to come back because&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;they are welcome"&amp;comma; said the Prime Minister&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>António Costa also added that if young people "return to the interior regions&amp;comma; they will have more support"&amp;comma; as part of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;vivreauportugalconsulting&period;com&sol;programme-regressar-jusquen-2023&sol;">programa Regressar<&sol;a>&amp;comma; because this is where "the demographic effort is most needed"&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>"We will expand&amp;comma; deepen and improve the Regressar program, supporting all those who have had to leave&amp;comma; particularly in recent years&amp;comma; and who now want to return"&amp;comma; he stressed&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In his speech in the district capital&amp;comma; Costa reinforced the message he had repeated at the event. <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;portobeautiful&period;com&sol;linterieur-des-terres-au-portugal-se-depeuple&sol;">tour of the country's interior<&sol;a>which began in Bragança and ends on Sunday in Guarda&amp;comma; on the demographic challenge and the role of this territory in the new centralized peninsular&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>"If this demographic challenge is a general challenge for the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;whole country&amp;comma; it is obviously more intense in low-density areas and in the territories of the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;interior and border regions and&amp;comma; therefore&amp;comma; the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;effort here must be a greater effort, and this effort implies&amp;comma; first of all&amp;comma; that we achieve the objective we defined in 2015, which is to transform border regions into new centralities in the Iberian space"&amp;comma; he emphasized&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>With this in mind&amp;comma; he recalled that&amp;comma; for the first time&amp;comma; after four decades of joint participation in the European Union&amp;comma; Portugal and&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;Spain "will present to Brussels a joint program for the development of the entire border region" between the two countries&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>António Costa also stated that "it is necessary to continue to attract businesses to the interior&amp;comma;" "creating the conditions to make the CRI more attractive in these regions&amp;comma; to continue the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;effort to reduce tolls in these territories" and emphasized that the recovery and resilience plan &amp;lpar;PRR&amp;rpar; "provides exclusively for inland regions a significant investment in the areas of&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;business location"&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Finally, he also pointed out that around 3,000 "highly skilled" jobs had been created out of the 3,800 initially planned in the program, and emphasized that this plan is being strengthened to create a further 20,000 highly skilled jobs in the interior by 2023&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;