Montenegro says talent retention and attraction goes beyond wage policy

The Prime Minister said on Monday that Portugal needs to retain staff and import labour at all skill levels, in a speech in which he argued that the strategy for attracting and retaining talent goes beyond wage policy.

This position was defended by Luis Montenegro in his speech with which he closed the Millennium Conversation conference at the Carlos Lopes Pavilion in Lisbon.

In his speech, the leader of the executive branch several times indirectly addressed the criticism voiced by opposition parties, especially the PS, of his government’s actions, mainly from the point of view of economic strategy.

“We must prevent the flight of talent abroad and promote the import of human capital. But we can only do this if we offer good conditions and better options than in other regions. Anyone who thinks that the retention problem can be solved by simply raising salaries is wrong, because people do not do this for no reason,” the prime minister warned.

Luis Montenegro highlighted the quality of higher education in Portugal, whether university or polytechnic, as well as vocational education.

“We are a country of hard-working people and we are a safe country, one of the best in the world in relative terms. In this period of instability in other regions, this is the right time for Portugal to attract investment and investment. stimulate investment in business. The country must be able to preserve human capital. Otherwise, we will lose competitiveness and companies will lose training. This is one of the goals, and we know that companies are cooperating so that we can move forward with confidence.” he said.

The government’s strategy, according to the executive leader, involves “changing taxes to stimulate economic growth, changing procedures to improve the ability of companies to access the financing mechanisms they need and encouraging every company in every sector to increase its scale and aggressively engage in international activity.”

“I know the results may not be immediate, but if we can do this, we will become a benchmark country in terms of attracting investment,” he said.

From a political point of view, Luis Montenegro noted that his leader has been criticized for presenting many plans that are not translated into laws.

“And in a way it’s good, because Portugal has no shortage of laws,” he responded, using irony here. Shortly after, before an audience of businessmen and financial professionals, he tried to leave a guarantee: “All plans will be carried out, measures will be implemented.”

“In this government cycle, we won’t be worried about staying here in the next one. We’ll be worried about leaving the next one. [Governo]Whatever it is, the best possible situation so that others do not have the difficulties that we have today,” he said.

Another line of government action, according to the prime minister, will be to “remove as much bureaucracy as possible from the lives of companies, including in digital terms.”

“There are too many details in digital tools. We have a culture where things come complicated from Europe and we add a little more complexity. We often lose business because of this,” he added.