The Minister of Economy and the Sea said this Friday, at the presentation of the new governing bodies of the Banco Português de Fomento (BPF), that he wants the institution to pay the Covid-19 support lines to companies before the end of the year.
“At the Development Bank level we are trying to solve some of the problems that existedthat is, with the Covid lines, and the promise made by the State at the height of the pandemic crisis, that 20% of these lines would become non-reimbursable funds for companies”, said António Costa Silva in this day.
The Minister of Economy was speaking at the Porto Business School, in Matosinhos, at the presentation of the new governing bodies of BPF, headed by Celeste Hagatong (Chairman of the Board of Directors, non-executive) and Ana Carvalho (Executive President), a session in which the President of the Government, António Costa, was also present.
According to Costa Silva, “financing sources are being identified in an accelerated manner and by the end of the year, pay all companies“, helping in the “saga that entrepreneurs have every day to meet their commitments and design a path to the future”.
The head of the Economy portfolio in the Government also announced that the BPF met the objective of the valuations of the European Commission within the framework of the Pillar evaluationan external audit What had to be done to the Banco de Fomento and what was done.”
The evaluation consisted of checking “what were the internal control systems, what were the accounting systems, whether or not they were in line with the standards [padrões] international, What were the methods of obtaining [aprovisionamento]which were, as a whole, the mechanisms for the detection of fraud and tax evasion”, he said.
“Today we received the news that the European Commission supported this objective [objetivo] has been fulfilled, and that also gives us all more confidence to this new development cycle that is approachingsaid Antonio Costa Silva.
The minister stressed that,in recent months, especially in the height of summerThe Government worked “so that the country respects the commitments it had in the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and some of these commitments had to do with the Development Bank.”
“The work we developed with Dr. Beatriz Freitas [anterior presidente executiva] and with Dr. Susana Bernardo [anterior diretora de risco]and with his teams, he allowed us to exceed these objectives”, he stressed.
Regarding the new administration, António Costa Silva classified Celeste Hagaton as “a woman with armswith a lot of banking experience in everything that has to do with insurance, and close to the business system”.
The new executive president, Ana Carvalho, was greeted by the minister “for her experience, for her multifaceted activity and for the very diligent work she does.”
António Costa Silva also pointed out that the BPF is “the first institution [bancária] of the country that bets on womenon leadership, noting that there is “no” executive or non-executive president at the national bank.
The minister also said he believed the BPF could “address the chronic decapitalization” of Portuguese companies, as well as “compensate for lack of capital and quasi-capitalization.”
“One of the obstacles preventing further development of the Portuguese economy has to do with the financing paradigm of portuguese companies”, he considered.
According to António Costa Silva, national companies “resort to bank credit, get into debt and suffocate in this bubble.”
Commercial banks “finance short-term projects, with quick returns, and many times the structuring projects that can change the Portuguese economy do not fit this profile,” the Banco de Fomento’s role being to counteract this trend, he concluded.
Source: Observadora
