This message was transmitted by Pedro Siza Vieira when he spoke about the consequences of digitalisation and automation concerning the labour market.

Vieira said that the challenges that Portugal faces in terms of digital transition and automation will require very large resources.

“We need to align national financial instruments, budgetary resources and the funds that will come to us from the next Community support framework, around these challenges,” he said.

“Several areas of government, from education, higher education, public administration and the economy, need to work together and with parliament. The rules that guide our traditional economy and society will need to change as the digital society changes," he added.

Vieira said that Portugal, like many other countries, is facing a world of opportunities and threats.

However, for him, the digital transition can be the lever to accelerate the country's economic growth.

"The most important resource we have is the capacity to work, the intelligence and the resistance of the Portuguese. In an economy where the most important thing is knowledge, perhaps ours is the opportunity to leap in development," he said.

For Vieira, however, the country still has many things to do to take advantage of these opportunities of the digital, starting with the training of people, the way young people learn in schools and the capacity to retrain the active population, especially the older generations.

"We have to be able to digitally transform our businesses. In this regard, 25% of our companies have a degree of digital maturity at the level of the best in the world, but three quarters are not yet ready," he said.

According to him, "we need to stimulate the emergence of new companies that develop new business models and new products and services around the digital economy.”

"We need a state and a public administration that is open, agile and transparent, working from a digital point of view and that is fully connected with the economy and with society, being also an engine of transformation," he added.