‘Europe will have to reinvent its productive organisation’ – PM

Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, on Friday said that Europe will have to “reinvent” its productive organisation to ensure a shorter, closer and safer supply chain.

For him, the “global hypercentralisation” of producing a set of products and raw materials is dramatic.

As an example, Costa pointed to the arrival in Portugal on Friday of four million masks and hundreds of thousands of personal protective equipment manufactured in China on a flight by Ethiopian Airlines.

“We shouldn’t be dependent on something that is produced in China, transported by Ethiopian Airlines to finally get here to Porto and which is a reserve supply that will last for a week,” he said.

Europe will have to reinvent its production organisation because it will not be able to risk this disruption again, he said.

Costa was speaking during a visit to the Technological Centre of the Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal (CITEVE), which is creating an instruction manual for companies that have decided to switch production to the manufacture of personal protective equipment, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The visit was attended by the minister of economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, who said that “We expect that very quickly our textile and clothing companies will be responding to the needs of the country,” stressing that the state hopes to buy from national companies.

The head of CITEVE, Braz Costa, said that production of the equipment could start next week.

Production must be more and more professional, so that the equipment offers effective protection instead of constituting a danger to the health of those who use it.

He stressed that this could be a new line for national companies.

“Portugal may be the best-placed country for the development of the individual protection fashion concept,” he said.