Foreign Direct Investment in Portugal

During the pre-election campaign, Cavaco Silva suggested that there should be a minister responsible for foreign direct investment. Only one week after Cavaco was elected, Manuel Pinho, economy minister, has shown that such a move is unnecessary.

He didn't call a press conference, preferring to let RTP do the work of presenting details of committed and promised investments. As it happened, the minister was available to confirm everything positive that the journalists had said, live on prime-time TV, in RTP1's most viewed programme of the week, which happened to coincide with a football match on TVI, thus boosting audience numbers even more.

The most unbelievable exchange was a "yes" response to Judith de Sousa's innocent question: "Are all these investments enough to offset all the job losses we have been hearing about?" He has to be joking!

Maybe it's the similarity with Gary Sinise that makes me unable to believe anything he says. In CSI-NY, Gary Sinise is a sinister character who manages to solve unfathomable cases with apparent ease. In Snake Eyes, he is determined and unstoppable, rather like the Minister's public image.

It remains to be seen whether this evening was a signal that the government intends to implement the president(-elect)'s suggestions or whether this was a pre-emptive move to show that those suggestions are not needed.