page_title: José Sócrates
section_title: Technological plan
hierarchical_section_title: José Sócrates / Prime Minister of Portugal / Sócrates government / Major policies / Technological plan
caption_attribution_description: English: Helder Antunes
context_page_description: José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH, commonly known as José Sócrates, is a Portuguese politician who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted as the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union.
  Sócrates grew up in the industrial city of Covilhã. He joined the centre-left Socialist Party in 1981 and was elected Member of Parliament in 1987. Sócrates entered the government in 1995, as Secretary of State for Environment in the first cabinet of António Guterres. Two years later, he became Minister of Youth and Sports and in 1999 became Minister for Environment. Sócrates prominence rose during the governments of António Guterres to the point that when the Prime Minister resigned in 2001, he considered to appoint Sócrates as his successor.
  In opposition, José Sócrates was elected leader of the Socialist Party in 2004 and led the party to its first absolute majority in the 2005 election. By then, Portugal was living an economic crisis, marked by stagnation and a difficult state of public finances.
context_section_description: One of the government's main policies was the Plano Tecnológico (Technological Plan), aimed at increasing Portugal's competitivity through the modernization of its economy. The plan consisted of three key areas: knowledge, technology and innovation. A low-cost Intel-based netbook for use by children announced by Sócrates's government cabinet, named Magalhães (after Fernão de Magalhães) and packaged and assembled for the Portuguese school-age children and the low-to-middle income economy export market by the Portuguese company J.P. Sá Couto, headquartered in Matosinhos, Norte region, was among the government's innovations under the Technological Plan. Governmental efforts in the technological domain also included state support of a Portuguese factory that was owned by the German-based semiconductor company Qimonda AG, in Vila do Conde, Norte region, when the parent company filed a bankruptcy petition with the local court in Munich, Germany, in early 2009. Qimonda Portugal was at the time one of the top Portuguese net exporters of technology.
  The European Innovation Scoreboard of 2010 placed Portugal-based innovation in 15th position, as a result of an impressive increase in innovation expenditure and output.
caption: Chris Dedicoat, Helder Antunes, and Sócrates at the 2008 Cisco Portugal Official Inauguration.
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