In a context of increased regional competitiveness, the maintenance of the fragile framework of the economic and social basis of the Alentejo required the identification of a new framework for guiding the restructuring and modernization of the existing economic fabric, as well as to the qualification of the territory and enhancement of the potentialities of the region.

The study aimed at updating another study, which was held previously and also by CEDRU, entitled “BERA – Study for the Definition of an Economic Fabric for the Region of Alentejo” (1995), identifying the new conditions, structural factors and emerging trends in the Alentejo in order to adapt the necessary measures and actions to the new regional development strategy. The guidelines were formulated in the sense of setting a tool to support the intervention, mobilizing local and regional actors, with the specific objectives of increasing the regional product and the retained added value, and innovating and diversifying the economic activities with greater strategic extent in a context of landscape and environmental enhancement and improvement of the quality of the population welfare.