António Costa Silva was invited by the Prime Minister to elaborate an economic recovery plan for the immediate, but also medium and long term after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The president of oil company Partex, who will be stepping down after the company was bought by Thais, said he was invited by the prime minister on April 24 to draw up an economic recovery plan for the country.
“When the prime minister invited me, he didn’t know him, he called me on April 24th, he invited me to go to lunch at the São Bento Palace. He launched a challenge, a plan for the day after [o pós-pandemia], what the country needs to do. On April 25th I thought, I more or less wrote the plan in my head and then on the following days I put it on paper ”, said the manager in an interview with RTP this Sunday.
“There is a first draft, which has the strategic axes that I think is very important to discuss: first, with the financial resources that exist, bet on the country’s physical infrastructure, modernize them all, qualify the road network, intervene a lot in the system of ports it is essential to leverage the country’s exports, the entire port network, to build a port hub, which has been developing extraordinary work in the ports, but port infrastructure, logistical platforms, pier expansions are very important, which are a clear bet of this Government ”, revealed António Costa Silva.
Its plan also aims at “all infrastructures that have to do with energy and the environment, namely the national electricity grid, water management, aquifer resources, and water distribution system, which is a fundamental resource for the future ”.
The second axis of this plan “is the digital infrastructure that the crisis has revealed to accelerate the digital transition. We saw in relation to schools that the country is very unequal, schools were not equipped, they did not have skills, so it is necessary to extend the optical fiber to the entire national territory, and then train public administration, schools, universities, research centers, so that there is a galaxy of small projects that allow to increase the qualification, and the digital competences ”.
Thirdly, the plan involves creating a “large program for small and medium-sized companies, which are more than 95% of our business fabric, increasing their digital skills will have a brutal impact on the economy and will force a certain development”, as António Costa Silva said in the interview with RTP.
The plan has a perspective for “the next decade, we will have funds that will come in three, four years and then seven years”.
The manager also defended greater investment in the National Health Service (SNS). “One of the emblematic investments has to be in the NHS. We saw the quality of our institutions in this response, from the SNS, DGS, Government, Parliament, President. The quality of the institutions is the quality of the response. We need to further qualify the SNS, invest in equipment, human resources, and the entire health sciences system that exists in Portugal: it is a galaxy that exists, which has already responded in terms of scientific applications and equipment ”.
In the most immediate timeframe, the plan aims to “save the economy and protect employment, a strong State intervention. This crisis showed that the role of the State has to be more valued, more State in the economy, the State is the last protector against all types of threats, we can see. There, there is also a discussion and debate about the balance that has to exist between State and market. I am in favor of the markets, which have to work, the fundamental role in this recovery is that of companies, they create wealth ”.
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