The reindustrialization of the country is a subject that has been talked about for some time as one of the factors that may help to mitigate the economic and financial crisis that we are currently experiencing.
The new "El Dorado"
Most of the time the word “reindustrialize” appears full of vague ideas, devoid of strategy and objective ends. This happened again at Pedro Passos Coelho’s press conference, where he made it clear that there should be a change in the country’s strategy from 2014 towards the allocation of QREN 2014 – 2020 incentives.
This new strategic order of the QREN points for aspects such as:
- Focus on generating wealth in the country
- Population Education/Qualification
- Industrialization and Internationalization
- Sustainability
Certainly none of the above aspects guarantee any novelty to the Portuguese population.
Who can’t list at least 5 political leaders who in the past 20 years have not had these jargons on the tip of their tongues, when there is a need to try to win votes or make a speech (like in this case) to the media?< /div>
What should be questioned is that with so many millions of Euros invested in all of the above vectors, how is it possible that we continue today with such weak indicators at the level of productivity of people/companies?!
| Tx. Productivity | Portugal | European Average (25) |
| per hour worked | 65.2 | 103.8 |
| per person employed | 76.5 | 103.2 |
Source: INE 2010
Important note: Let’s not be fooled if we think that “we are little” and that we are not big enough to compete with the rest of Europe, because the country that presents Luxembourg’s highest rate of productivity is with a rate of 187.1 per hour worked.
Need: Attitude change
The reader can refute that evaluating only the population’s productivity can be reductive, in that several aspects should determine this value, such as education, specialization, the main business sectors in the country, etc.
However, what seems clear to us is that we all have a small share of the blame for the state we are in.
QREN will focus once again on education, but who doesn’t know someone who has taken a purposeful course just to earn a few euros in exchange for a subscription?
Who doesn’t know a businessman who, instead of applying the QREN incentives in his company, applied it to objects of personal use and own consumption?
And how many of us, instead of denouncing, look to the side, or try to do the same?
- Could this “new” strategic orientation of the QREN save the Portuguese economy? No! You don't change a society in 6 years!
- Could this be a bet on the right “place”? Yes! Certainly the public debate will be more commonplace, but the focus on the specialization of the Portuguese economy, combined with a change in the trade balance (read strength in exports!) it has to be the main focus of our companies for decades to come.
The change has to be not only of strategy, but of the population’s attitude as well! It is necessary to demand more from everyone (politicians, businessmen, workers , students), but also ensure we’ll be better!
