The coming year will be one of “uncertainty and difficulty”, but there is room to overcome adversity: you just need to “roll up your sleeves and have that intention”. The message was left by António Horta Osório, banker, during the Portugal and Europe 2023 meeting, which took place this Friday at the Museu de Marinha in Lisbon and kicked off the celebrations of the DN’s 158th anniversary.
“To say it will be a difficult year is not pessimistic. It is realistic,” continued Horta Osório, before concluding: “There are moments of good fortune and bad luck, the most important thing is to have resilience and prudence to withstand the most negative moments.”
Although the conversation – moderated by the director of DN, Rosália Amorim – was the main point, the interventions started shortly before, with Marco Galinha (CEO of the Global Media Group), Rosália Amorim and Pedro Adão e Silva (Minister of Culture) that log in.
In the short speech, before an audience including Pedro Passos Coelho (former Prime Minister) and Assunção Cristas (minister between 2011 and 2015), Marco Galinha stressed the importance of preserving and contributing to the DN archive, which will soon be partially unveiled . door, in the D. Luiz room, in an exhibition that opened on this day and will remain open to the public until February 28.
“Browsing the DN archive is like traveling all the seas ever traveled by the Portuguese. Since 1864, two great wars have been reported, April 25, Portugal’s entry into the EEC, among many other moments” , he emphasized. from. That is why it is important “to look not only to the past but also to the future”, thereby contributing to “enriching the archive, which is already so rich”, according to the CEO of GMG.
The director of DN also stressed the importance of exposing part of the archive: “With a history that already included dictatorships, democracies, wars and crises, we believe that we cannot resign ourselves to the difficulties and factors that we did not have expected,” she said. said. And, using a phrase from the guest at the meeting, he closed with the motto: “We can’t put ourselves down.”
Minister Pedro Adão e Silva – who oversees social communication – stressed the “responsibility of having an archive like that of the DN” – which was classified as a national treasure this year. This is because, he pointed out, “if Portugal happened to disappear, it would be possible to reconstruct history based on the archive”. For this reason, “it’s also interesting as a treasure, if it’s a tool at the service of the country and the people. It’s also a sign for journalism because it recognizes historical evidence,” two things he considered, “can do not exist separately”. At the end of the speech, he received a keepsake: the front page of the day he was born (May 12, 1974).
“Do we want to grow or not?”
The accumulated experience as a leader in banking and, more recently, as a consultant to large companies, allows António Horta Osório to have an outside perspective on the challenges facing Portugal. One of the most important, he argues, is related to the ambition that should guide society and political power in determining the country’s economic destiny. “When we look at what we should be doing, we realize it’s not a capacity issue. I think it’s more to do with whether or not we want to grow,” he emphasizes.
The former banker, now manager of several companies, including Bial, has no doubt that it would be possible to exploit the economic dynamism and “double the country’s income” in a decade. For this, he says, it is essential to put party issues aside and determine, with long-standing consensus over time, the direction to follow. The fundamental ingredient must be a strong commitment to innovation with increased public support. “I think that public support should mainly focus on innovation,” he notes.
Horta Osório believes in a future for the country with less state and more money for the private sector, which he sees as the engine of growth. “I believe that the private sector and people who have more money in their pockets will create more wealth in the long run,” he emphasizes.
The recipe for the end of two decades of anemic growth has yet to be complemented by the continued focus on exports, an area where “we can always do more”, but also by the stimulus of competition. While the path is natural for the former banker, he recognizes the difficulties and challenges set aside for the national and European economy next year. Inflation, which “most Portuguese are not used to”, will be one of the main obstacles on the horizon, primarily because it is “a bad tax”. “It’s a blind cost to people and immediately creates asymmetries. It’s much worse for people with fewer assets,” he says.
He believes that “caution” is called for on the part of the European Central Bank in the policy of rate hikes and points to the “moment of great uncertainty” that in Europe, in relation to the United States, has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis. The international context therefore forces the continuation of the strategy of reducing Portugal’s public debt in order to increase the country’s sovereignty in relation to its fate.
“The blame on the product [interno bruto] French is about 115%. I think we have the possibility that in 2023 or 2024 we will have a debt on the product that is below the French ratio.” perspective. The upside, for Horta Osório, is that Portugal can avoid “an external constraint” and grow without the constraints of debt pressure. “If we stay under France, we will stay in another championship,” emphasized.
To get there, it will be essential to review immigration policies to solve the Portuguese demographic problem, although António Horta Osório believes that it is not enough to open the borders, but to design strategies to attract foreign workers “based on the skills the country needs”. With more strategy, well-defined objectives, less taxes and increased productivity, the former banker has no doubt that Portugal’s future could be bright. “The Portuguese have enormous capacity,” he concludes.
Mental health should be a priority
In the audience Ricardo Batista Leite, doctor and representative of the PSD, heard the intervention of António Horta Osório. When the banker suffered a burnout running Lloyds – which he bailed out of bankruptcy – the Social Democratic deputy, once the period for public questions opened, thanked Horta Osório for the work done in this area and he encouraged the manager to talk about your case.
Without embarrassment, the banker shared his testimony, reminding that mental health should be a priority and within companies it should be a topic that is discussed and debated. “I know very well what this is and companies should undoubtedly invest and engage in the subject”, which, says António Horta Osório, “is fundamental even for the proper functioning of companies”.
In fact, mental health philanthropic acts were one of the reasons why Queen Elizabeth II gave António Horta Osório the title of Sir in 2021.
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