This position by Luís Montenegro was defended in the speech with which he closed the “Millennium Talk” conference, at the Carlos Lopes pavilion, in Lisbon.

In his intervention, the PM indirectly addressed, on several occasions, criticisms that have been made by opposition parties, especially the PS, to his Government's actions, mainly in terms of economic strategy.

“We must prevent talent from fleeing abroad and we must promote the import of human capital. But we can only do this if we offer good conditions and better options than in other geographies. Anyone who thinks that they can solve the issue of retention just by raising salaries is wrong because people don’t just prioritise that”, warned the Prime Minister.

Luís Montenegro highlighted the quality of Higher Education in Portugal, whether university or polytechnic, as well as professional education.

“We are a country of hard-working people and we are a safe country, being among the best in the world in relative terms. In this period, characterised by insecurity in other geographies, this is the right time for Portugal to attract investment and stimulate business investment. The country must be able to retain human capital. Otherwise, we will lose competitiveness. This is one of the objectives and we know that companies are collaborating 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 with the aim of increasing the ability of companies to access the financing mechanisms they need and stimulating the gain of the scale of each company in each sector of activity in an international market marked by aggressiveness”.

“I know that the results may not be immediate, but if we manage to do this, we will be a reference country in terms of attracting investment”, he advocated.