State Minister and State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, announced the creation of a “unique counter for companies” and the review of various licenses, including urbanistic, with the objective of reducing the deadlines in construction.
The deputy and state reform minister announced on Saturday that the government will soon launch the “Unique Counter for Companies” and review several licenses, including urbanistic, to shorten deadlines.
Gonçalo Matias was today the guest of the PSD’s Summer University Dinner, a Young Frames Training initiative that runs until Sunday in Castelo de Vide (Portalegre), and argued that the central objective of state reform is “Make life easier for people and companies.”
“It is the state leaving the front of people and companies, and letting people work, let companies work,” he said, considering that many bureaucratic acts “only exist because they imply paying a fee.”
Government announces creation of “Unique counter for companies”
After taking stock of the measures taken by this new ministry in the first month of the XXV Government -which highlighted the creation of the state’s CTO figure (director of systems) -announced others to implement soon, such as the creation of “Unique counter for companies”who said he was not confused with the existing counter to the entrepreneur.
“It is a new measure of centralization. Having a unique interlocutor for entrepreneurs in public administration. And that allows us to have a single voice, a single face, which will then channel to all other services,” he explained.
The former president of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation left some Numbers to give an idea of the impact of bureaucracy in this area.
“Studies point to 356 hours to start a company, and on these 391 hours only in bureaucratic obligations, which means about 750 hours in the first year,” he said, saying that anyone who wants to create a company in Portugal “departs with four months late” compared to countries such as Poland and Slovakia.
Gonçalo Matias announced that the Government also aims to review industrial, environmental and urban licenseswith the latter “on the gutter very soon”.
“With aspects as important as the shortening of deadlines, the certainty of deadlines. Nowadays when someone asks me how long it will take to license this construction, no one knows,” he said.
According to the minister, “in many cases”, it will be Licensing for previous communications And when the deadlines are outdated, there will be the principle of tacit granting, noting that one of the foundations of state reform is based “In the beginning of trust”.
“We cannot start from the beginning that those who are doing something is about to deceive ourselves, we have to trust people, obviously responsible, then those who do not fulfill,” he said.
State reform will be a lengthy process
Faced with a more critical question – if the government is not failing to communicate in these measures – the assistant minister admitted that the State reform will be a time consuming processarguing that “It is not possible to have accumulated 50 years of bureaucracy and reverse everything in two or three months.”
“There is no other way to make a state renovation with some depth, if it is not just cosmetic, if it is not only political marketing and not to count on me,” he warned, leaving criticism of the inheritance of socialist governance.
“We inherited a slower country, which is a country that steals opportunities,” he accused.
The minister made a point of reiterating the government’s commitment that this reform – assumed as a priority by the Prime Minister – will not imply “Any discharge program in public administration.”
Faced with an audience of youth, Gonçalo Matias – who was one of the most applauded speakers of this summer University – admitted that it is Difficult to retain in Portugal a generation with qualifications above the European average and wages belowbut left them a request.
“Do not lose hope, do not abandon the country, do not think that Portugal is an exporter of talent because Portugal is a talent aggregator,” he said.
