JACK OF ALL TRADES
With all types of infrastructure projects under its belt, Odebrecht is focused on winning future public tenders in Portugal and competing with China's stake in construction sectors across Africa.
BIOGRAPHY
Esteban Adolfo Trouet graduated in 1999 as a civil engineer from the Catholic University of Córdoba. In 2004, he earned an MBA with a focus on project management from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He worked for about 10 years on the construction of several infrastructure projects around Latin America. In 2018, after the restructuration of Odebrecht Engineer and Construction, he was selected to be the Regional Director of Odebrecht EMEA.Could you elaborate on the performance and main highlights of the company?
Odebrecht's successful trajectory in Portugal started in 1989, when it acquired Bento Pedroso Construções. Since the 1990s, when Portugal was experiencing a boom in terms of infrastructure development, we have been involved in the construction of landmarks such as the Vasco Da Gama Bridge, the Gare do Oriente Station, nearly 500km of roads and highways, approximately 10km of metro lines, several underground stations in Lisbon and Porto, and 150km of railways, as well as important hydroelectric power projects, such as Alqueva Dam, one of the biggest dams in the Iberian Peninsula that created the largest artificial lake in Europe and an irrigation network covering 110,000ha, and the Baixo Sabor Dam, an iconic project recognized not only for its engineering and design, but also for Odebrecht's efforts in terms of sustainability and preserving important archeological findings. Since its foundation, Odebrecht has worked on several other projects, including industrial infrastructures, water and sewage treatment plants, and airports.
How would you evaluate Portugal's performance among the group's portfolio?
Apart from its successful trajectory, our operation in Portugal represents an intangible asset in terms of providing highly qualified human resources for Odebrecht's operations in other countries. Over the last 20 years, engineers, managers, and people with different qualifications have been assigned to projects in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The professional capabilities of Portuguese people aligned with their adaptability to different environments and conditions make them indispensable resources to the company's global operations.
What projects are you currently working on, and do you have anything in the pipeline?
Except for the Baixo Sabor Dam and Baixo Tejo Highway, which are still under the period of guarantee, and, therefore, require a certain level of activity, we are 100% concentrated on competing in the new public tenders to be launched in Portugal, such as those for the construction of metro projects in Lisbon and Porto. Due to the technical challenges inherent to such projects, we believe that Odebrecht, a world leader in metro and tunnels excavation works, possesses the required experience and expertise to submit competitive technical and commercial proposals.
What is your strategy to maintain your high quality of human talent?
We seek to conquer new construction projects, either in Portugal, where our focus is on public tenders, or Africa, where we maintain permanent offices in four countries—Ghana, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa—and are highly active in terms of business development and assessing opportunities in new markets such as Zambia, Tanzania, and countries belonging to Southern African Development Community (SADC). If we are successful in our business development efforts, the Portuguese workforce will play a pivotal role in the execution of future projects.
What are your main goals and priorities for 2019?
The main goal is definitively to win new construction projects in Portugal and Africa. The quest for backlog is a constant challenge to a contractor. Particularly in relation to Africa, our plan is to consolidate our operation in East Africa, in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, where the construction sector has been growing at a steady rate of more than 7% a year over the last decade or so. In order to compete with Chinese companies, whose stake in construction sectors across Africa reaches more than 60%, establishing a local and effective presence across the region is of paramount importance.
JACK OF ALL TRADES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
read articleFocus
Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
read articleInterview
João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
read articleInterview
António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
read articleInterview
Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
read articleInterview
Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
read articleInterview
Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
read articleInterview
Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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