“What is the goal of any country, especially Portugal, is to improve jobs and wages, to have higher wages and better jobs”, Rio said after a conference online organized by the Francisco Sá Carneiro Institute and the party’s National Strategic Council (CEN) on “The role of innovation in local economic development”.
The Social Democratic leader estimated that, in order for the country to have products with “greater added value”, the “magic word is innovation”.
“Innovation is absolutely fundamental for this competitiveness which is not based on low wages. This goes for any company, for a country like Portugal, which has one of the lowest salaries in the European Union, it becomes even more urgent”, he said.
Rio welcomed the initiative of the Instituto Sá Carneiro and CEN to organize this seminar, in particular at a time when the application of future European funds is under discussion.
“Funds that must be well invested, they are not spent, they are invested and in this investment, innovation must play a leading role”, he said.
For the leader of the PSD, there is a role to play in this area by governments, which “must have a stronger policy of support for investment and investment in innovation”, but also by local authorities.
“I was president of a large city council for twelve years and we have always paid attention to the competitive factors that differentiated the city”, he said.
For Rui Rio, “local power can effectively be an element of differentiation in the competitiveness of the country, of companies, of society in general”, and this leads to the main objective.
“We have to be able to pay better wages and have better jobs, more quality jobs where people can be more creative and ultimately feel happier”, he declared.
The seminar organized by the Instituto Sá Carneiro and CEN included interventions by the presidents of these bodies, Maria da Graça Carvalho and Joaquim Sarmento, respectively, of the MEP Paulo Rangel and of the president of the Braga Chamber of the PSD Ricardo Rio, between others.