"The conference serves to reinforce transparency and improve the quality of public finances in Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) and Timor-Leste and contribute to strong public finances in these countries, within the framework of a program financed by the European Union, and will debate the new financing themes, such as environmental issues, sustainability, the digital transition, gender and inequality issues, in addition to the theme of public procurement and how they can contribute to sustainability", said João Leão.
Speaking to Lusa on the eve of the second Public Finance Meetings - Building Strong and Inclusive Institutions, taking place on Thursday and Friday in Lisbon, João Leão stressed that the meeting, within the scope of a postgraduate course in Public Finance at ISCTE , will bring to Lisbon the Minister of Finance of Angola, Vera Daves de Sousa, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Cape Verde, Olavo Correia, in addition to other leaders and senior public administration officials from Portuguese-speaking African countries.
"Besides the concepts, there will also be an exchange of experience between the different countries, to take advantage of the good practices in each one of them", stressed the former minister, stressing that the Angolan minister will speak on the case of Angola, which "recently had a financial adjustment program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which it concluded with great success".
For Portugal, concluded the former official, it will also be an opportunity to strengthen ties with the PALOP and Timor-Leste, not only in terms of technical training and staff training, but also "in other areas of public finance, monitoring and support and shows confidence in these countries".
The meeting begins on Thursday morning with an intervention by the Minister of Finance of Angola with the theme "Public Finance Reform - the recent path and the great challenges in Angola", followed by João Leão's intervention on "The Role of solid, transparent and responsible public finances".
On Friday, it will be the turn of the former finance minister of Cape Verde, Cristina Duarte, to address the theme "Which ways to align public policies with the transformation of the continent?", before the deputy prime minister and minister of Finance of Cape Verde, Olavo Correia, to present "Public Expenditure and Social and Financial Responsibility: the case of Cape Verde".
In addition to the former rulers, the president of the Portuguese Court of Auditors, José Tavares, several Portuguese-speaking female deputies and the President of Orango Investment Corporation, Guinean Paulo Gomes, will speak at the forum, which ends on Friday afternoon.
