The prime minister defended this Wednesday that despite the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, employment in the country is at its maximum, companies are not closed and are exporting like never before and the economy is growing.
“If we were here four years ago and they told us: we are going to have a pandemic that will stop the whole world. They would say, there is a madman here, does anyone believe this? Energy price 160%, 200%.” He said: he is even crazier. The truth is we’ve been through all of this, we’ve all been through this.”stated António Costa during a lunch with businessmen organized by the Associação Empresarial do Minho in Guimarães.
“And despite the fact that we are all going through all of this, the truth is that employment is maxed out, businesses are not closed, the economy is growing like it hasn’t for many years, companies are exporting like they had never exported before. And that’s why we have only one reason to say: meet the challenges and we will win. And that’s what we’re going to do.”said Costa during yet another initiative that is part of the two days of the ‘Government + Next’ program, which will take place this Wednesday and Thursday in the district of Braga.
For the prime minister it is important that there is “focus and confidence” in the future.
“I think we need to concentrate. I think we have good reasons to have confidence, which is a fundamental condition for the country. [Em] Everything, to overcome the challenges, is to have faith in the circumstances we have. And confidence is not that we are unaware of obstacles, it is that we are aware that we have the ability to overcome obstacles. Because there is no life, there is no challenge, in any industry, in any activity that has no obstacles. In your businesses, you have already encountered many obstacles and will encounter many obstacles”said the leader of the government in his speech.
In this sense, António Costa stressed that it is essential to have confidence so that “despite these obstacles” it is possible to create the conditions “to overcome them”.
“And that is what the country must feel,” emphasized the Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Presidency Ministers Mariana Vieira da Silva, Economy Ministers António Costa Silva, and Territorial Cohesion Ministers Ana Abrunhosa.
The head of government assumed that he was “deeply convinced” that Portugal meets all the conditions to “make a great leap forward”.
“And my deep belief is that, with the human resources that we have today, with the resilience of the corporate fabric that we have today, with the innovative capacity that the science and technology system provides businesses today, with the comparative advantage that we have in this context of dual energy and digital transition, we have all the conditions to take a giant leap forward”emphasized Antonio Costa.
The Council of Ministers is scheduled for Thursday in Braga.
Source: DN
