Many of the countries of the Portuguese-speaking world consider themselves brothers and sisters, and it is true that the cultural similarities, for better or for worse, are in fact more than evident.
Throughout my business life, divided between Portugal, Angola and Brazil, one of the things that has shocked me the most is the constant lack of interest by private sector decision makers in supporting their country's businesses.
Mesmo em Angola, um país com uma crise de divisas enorme, e em que aceder a moeda estrangeira é praticamente impossível, com uma taxa de desemprego demasiado elevada, alguns decisores das maiores empresas continuam a privilegiar a escolha de empresas estrangeiras pagas em divisas para executar os seus trabalhos, quando existem empresas angolanas com a mesma ou até com maior competência.
This is a crime. As if all these decisions together are not contributing to the non-development of an economy. I honestly don't understand if it's lack of patriotism, irresponsibility, provincialism or some other reason.
Private decision-makers in larger companies, in top, middle or bottom positions, have to be aware that each decision they make contributes to generating one more, or one less job.
All Portuguese-speaking countries are in a similar situation, where the challenges are great. The next few years will tell whether our economies are part of a world front platoon or whether we are hopelessly left behind.
That is why it is time to invest in the development of Portuguese-speaking economies, and that includes every decision we make in our daily lives, whether we are entrepreneurs, top or middle decision makers, or simply consumers.
It's time we did our part.
