Regulatory and bureaucratic constraints are obstacles to development, leading investors and companies to weigh the respective opportunity costs and risks of investing in a given country or area. Portugal has defined a legal framework that allows technology-based innovative technologies, products, services and processes to be tested safely in a real or quasi-real environment, with the support and monitoring of the respectively competent authorities.

ZLT constitutes accelerators of experimental projects that allow testing new technologies possibly to be assimilated by the market and by public entities that regulate the sector.  The main idea of this legal framework is to attract investors by creating an entity aiming to minimise bureaucratical processes in approval and certification procedures. Another advantage is the possibility to test the equipment or technology in a real context where it is possible to evaluate the failures and to overcome any faults detected during project implementation.

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(contribution from Portugal)