Portugal’s infrastructure minister says political crisis is stumbling block
Portugal’s Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, believes “now is the right time” to sell TAP but has admitted that the current political crisis is a block to achieving it.
“As all the stakeholders are saying, now is the right time for the market to proceed with this sale, but the current political crisis is a stumbling block” to this goal, he told Jornal de Negócios and Antena 1 in an interview.
Miguel Pinto Luz says that the government and Parpública (State holding company) will continue preparatory works for the next government to take a decision to “avoid wasting time”.
“It is planned to issue the decree-law, but this could be overtaken by the steps that are being taken behind the scenes,” he said, referring to the election campaign which will now start in earnest in the run up to the May 18 snap election.
The Minister of Infrastructure also expressed concern about the execution time of the Porto-Lisbon High Speed line, after the tender for the second section ended with only one proposal, from the Portuguese consortium LusoLav, which has since been rejected by the jury.
“We mustn’t miss the deadline,” said Pinto Luz, admitting to pressing ahead with a new tender even though the government is in a caretaker role until the election.
The decision lies in whether the new tender will get increased funding or the workload will be reduced to attract more interested parties.
Source: Essential Business
