A war of words has broken out between CIP – the confederation of Portuguese industry – and Portugal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs after the latter said last week that one of the main issues holding national companies back was their “very poor management”.
The confederation has accused Augusto Santos Silva of “unfairly denigrating the image of Portuguese businesspeople” and said that only someone who lives “closed in palace-like settings” could make such remarks.
“We cannot allow that those who are most responsible for promoting and defending Portugal’s interests are those who most disregard the companies and businesspeople who, along with the Portuguese people, pulled the country out of the state of bankruptcy that we were left in by the very poor political administration of several governments, some of which Augusto Santos Silva was part of,” CIP boss António Saraiva said in a statement.
The confederation also criticised the minister for doubting the ability of national companies to “innovate” on their own and saying that the country should look towards attracting “more foreign investment” in order to change the fabric of the country’s business sector.
“If the ‘compassion’ that he showed towards Portuguese businessmen during the holiday season wasn’t enough, he also defended that the major solution to innovation would be attracting more foreign investment,” Saraiva said.
He added that the minister made it clear how “one of the most important members of the government sees national companies and businesspeople”.
