Dowercast | The Day After the PRR - Pedro Dominguinhos

The Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) is approaching its final phase. After billions of euros in investment, hundreds of projects, reforms and milestones, one essential question is beginning to emerge: what happens to Portugal after the PRR?

That is the focus of “The Day After the PRR”, the latest episode of Dowercast, featuring Pedro Dominguinhos, President of the National Monitoring Committee for the PRR.

Pedro Dominguinhos is one of the figures who has most closely followed the implementation of Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan.

An economist, professor and researcher in the field of Management, he has built much of his professional career around higher education, management, entrepreneurship, internationalisation and regional development.

He served as President of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal and as President of the Coordinating Council of Portuguese Polytechnic Institutes, before taking over, in 2022, as President of the National Monitoring Committee for the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Over the past few years, he has closely followed the implementation of the PRR in Portugal, engaging directly with companies, municipalities, public bodies and the various entities responsible for delivering its investments.

This has given him a unique perspective from which to understand not only how much of the PRR has been implemented, but also what this major investment programme has revealed about the Portuguese economy, Public Administration and the country’s capacity to deliver large-scale projects.

In this episode of Dowercast, we therefore wanted to go beyond implementation rates, milestones and figures.

We discuss the main challenges surrounding the implementation of the PRR, the obstacles encountered on the ground, the capacity of companies and public entities to deliver investment, and the key lessons learned over the past few years.

But the central question is a different one:

What will remain once the PRR comes to an end?

Has Portugal managed to turn this exceptional funding opportunity into lasting structural change?

What implementation capacity will remain within companies, municipalities and Public Administration?

Which investments will continue to generate an impact once European funding comes to an end?

And how should Portugal prepare for the next cycles of European funding, particularly Portugal 2030, in an increasingly demanding economic environment?

Throughout the conversation, we also explore issues such as public investment, the competitiveness of Portuguese companies, European funds, public policy, regional development, innovation and economic growth.