The president of the Union of Exporters of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) today argued that free movement of people and capital, a common customs tariff and a development bank are essential to project the community.
“The free movement of people and capital, a common customs tariff, and a development bank that finances entrepreneurs’ investments are essential to make the CPLP a world power,” Mário Costa said in statements about the entry into functions of the new executive secretary, the Portuguese Francisco Ribeiro Telles, on January 1st.
“The new strategic vision of the CPLP, which gives more importance to the economic part, is very well seen by the heads of State and Government, and this was clear in Sal, when Cape Verde assumed the CPLP presidency, electing the economic pillar as the main flag, ” added the businessman and consultant.
Mário Costa considered that “the economic and geostrategic potential is enormous, both in terms of natural resources and the economic regions in each one of them“, noting that Angola, which takes over the presidency of the CPLP in 2020, “has already announced that the would be the main pillar. ”
The evolution of a community centred on language and culture, for a community more focused on the economy and on the entrepreneurial side, marked the last years of the CPLP, he congratulated the businessman: “Before three or four years ago, economic relations were essentially bilateral, but then began a business promotion movement, creating several entities such as the union of exporters, the federation of young entrepreneurs, and will arise more because the opportunities are huge, ” he pointed out.
Asked how concretely the state can promote trade and investment of Portuguese-speaking entrepreneurs in CPLP countries, Mario Costa replied: “For CPLP and entrepreneurs to assert themselves as an economic power it was important that there was a common economic policy of the CPLP, because what we see now are political and business consultations, but the economic focus is not yet clear, even in the ambassadors of the countries to the CPLP. ”
For the businessman, “it was important to have a common direction in economic terms and entrepreneurs would go behind, as for example in the case of free circulation, which is essential because you can not talk business if it does not circulate at will “.
Political will, he stressed, “already exists now“, but he recalled that “there were reservations before, namely Brazil, but this has now changed drastically, Brazil has no way of giving back, there is no return to the primacy of the economic pillar“.
With Brazil committed, he concluded, “CPLP will be able to give the impetus that was lacking in economic terms.“
