Public transport is ‘investment, not cost’ – newly-appointed minister
"If we think about it strategically, it will always be strictly an investment, an investment in our future, an investment in our planet", said infrastructure minister Miguel Pinto Luz.
The newly-appointed minister for infrastructure and housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, said on Thursday that spending on public transport was an investment and not a cost, but acknowledged that “if poorly applied”, it can become a cost.
“The question we are asked is whether it is a cost or an investment. I do not doubt that it is an investment,” he said at the conference “Public transport: cost or investment – the benefits of public transport under discussion”, organised by Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) in Lisbon.
However, Pinto Luz pointed out that if not applied properly, this investment could become a costly mistake.
“If we think about it strategically, it will always be strictly an investment, an investment in our future, an investment in our planet […] often this investment is poorly made and becomes a cost,” said the minister.
The minister, who takes office today at 6 p.m., also said he wants a fair territory, and used the expression “territorial justice” instead of territorial cohesion, stating that he does not want the homogenisation of the territory.
“Cohesion leads us to homogenisation of the territory, which is not what we want. We are different, the territories are different, the cities are different, the regions are different,” said Pinto Luz.
The minister also said that it is more interesting for each region to “develop its own strategic models”, which will make “the country more cohesive”.
“Therefore, social justice is something much more interesting in terms of conceptual density, because we have environmental justice, we have social justice, we have territorial justice, we have human justice, we have economic justice, and it is in all these dimensions, and in each of the regions, that we can develop our strategic models, which make the country more cohesive,” he said.
The second government led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro will have 16 ministries, one less than the previous one, and will retain thirteen of the 17 ministers from the outgoing government.
The 25th Constitutional Government will be sworn in today at 6 p.m., 18 days after the elections, which is the fastest process of forming a government in Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s presidential terms.