"Generating wealth is the best way to end poverty"

"Generating wealth is the best way to end poverty", said Prime Minister Luís Montenegro to hundreds of entrepreneurs at the Millenium Talks in Lisbon.

Luís Montenegro claimed at the Accelerating the Economy programme and other Government programmes in the economic area "are mostly for the poor, they are to transform those who live in poverty into a ore financially privileged situation. That is why we are investing in the economy, in companies, in generating wealth". 

"There is a huge difference that separates us from those who criticise these programmes, for supposedly being aimed at entrepreneurs" because "this means this new Government is here to do things differently to what was done in previous years", he said.

3% growth

The Prime Minister said the Government’s ai mis to "by the end of a decade or two, instead of concluding we grew on average 0,5%, t conclude we grew 3%, or more, on average".

"The connection between the companies, the financial system and the political powers, administration ("which has financing instruments to manage"), is mandatory (…) for us to have good economic performance that does not stop at a small cycle, to increase the generation of wealth in the country and increase the length of the economic growth cycles", he added. 

In this connection between the financial sector, the political power, and companies "the companies’ component is not restricted to entrepreneurs, whose courage, tenaciousness, and appetite for risk I praise." "A company is also its workers, its know-how, its customer base, it’s the capacity to sustain production and market sales", he stressed.

More wealth, better wages

Luís Montenegro said that "when we value companies", "we are also thinking about the entrepreneurs, the people who work in the companies, the companies that work for other companies, the value chain, and the potential to generate wealth so we can live better off the economy’s exporting capacity". 

And by "generating wealth we can pay better wages and retain the more qualified. If we don’t do so, if we don’t understand this is what a company is about, we will not have the capacity to generate more wealth", he stated.

"If we don’t generate wealth, we are prolonging and oftentimes fostering poverty", he said, adding that it takes courage to carry out these growth policies "even if the results aren’t felt the next day".