The State “has to get out of the way of companies”

The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, defended this Friday that the State must “get out of the way” of companies so that they can innovate; It is up to the State to create conditions and not burden them with taxes and regulations that kill innovation.

At the end of a debate in Tondela on “The power of innovation”, promoted by the Caramulo Museum and the Business Association of the Viseu Region (AIRV), the Minister of the Presidency, Antônio Leitão Amaroargued that the State must “not get in the way, give freedom, get out of the way” of companies.

“What is the role of the State? First, from a certain point of view, get out of the way and not be obsessed with is it the State or the bureaucrats who innovate”, said the minister.

“They are not the presidents of the Chamber, the ministers or department directors who choose which technologies and activities will work”, he added.

Leitão Amaro maintained that “the State has another vocation, that of infrastructure, ccreate conditions, stability, security, assistance Much more in the idea of ​​a network, support, support and creating conditions so that others can innovate.

“The first thing we have to understand is: there is a big dose here of not getting in the way, give freedom, get out of the waynot burdening those who start trying to do it with taxes, not burdening them with rules and regulations that kill innovation”, he highlighted.

In this sense, Antónioo Leitão Amaro praised the European Union projectwhich “is extraordinary, but Brussels and Terreiro do Paço got addicted to creating rules to protect all things and all worries” and “with so many worries, often, kill the spirit and power of innovation”.

“And part of the project that we have and are trying to implement has everything to do with this idea of ​​pulling freedom and realizing that the transformative genius and innovative will not come from the State”, these.

The project that the Government is trying to implement involves, among other aspects, lower taxes or reduce stifling rules in public contracting and, among the achievements already achieved, highlighted the “so-called green route in visas” for workers.

Before, “when someone from outside arrived four, five years passed to regularize, he was unable to obtain visas”, but in the last two years, he stressed, “using the so-called green route, it is possible for a worker to obtain a visa in 20 days, on average. But We have more things to do in the future on this matter.”

Among them, the country’s infrastructure “so that it is easy to transform initial projects into successful projects and this means energy arriving cheap5G communication networks everywhere and fast, space for industries to set up and connections and transport” for companies.

About the power of innovation gave Caramulo as an examplehis homeland and where the debate took place, since Until 1910 “it was a wild desert with nothingno trees, no people and no roads, just granite bollards” and today it is attracting tourism.

“Innovation cannot just remain on paper as an ideanot even as words, have to be transformed into actions”, he highlighted.

The debate, moderated by the businessman and president of AIRV, João Cottawas attended by the president of Renova, Paulo Pereira da Silvathe president and CEO of Metropolitano de Lisboa, Cristina Vaz Toméand the president of Movecho, Luís Abrantes.