“Ideas and individual projects do not resolve structural crisesnor the former entrepreneursnor the shortcuts, magic solutions, nor closed economies,” Facundo Gómez Minujin, president of AmCham, the chamber that brings together US businesses, warned on Tuesday.
At the opening of AmCham Summit 2023, number one JP Morgan in the country highlighted that “only if we succeed a radical change in economic organization of the country, we will be able to reverse the downward trend in which we are immersed”.
According to him, we must analyze the model of country we intend to have. “Agree on the problems and the necessary reforms, redefine the role of the state which has grown from 20% to 40% of GDP in spending and contributes to the preparation of regulatory frameworks transform the private sector into an engine of growth and employability”.
The head of AmCham said that “Argentina is sadly in constant decline many decades ago, 70 years capable and that decadence he was speeding up over time”.
He explained that in late 2022 the economic slowdown began to take its toll and the cooling continued into the first quarter of this year, “which leads us to anticipate that it has started again a new recession for our already weakened finances. Unfortunately, we will experience a recession with inflation“.
“This added to unprecedented drought, lack of foreign currency to provide import requirements; a fully regulated foreign exchange market; followed by a remedy that has already proved unsuccessful, such as stocks; Managed trade and the trickle of inputs for the normal production of our industries lead the country to a new crisis, the tenth we have suffered since the return of democracy“, he listed.
“AND impossible to plan for the long term when we don’t have very short-term visibility. We are sailing in a bank of fog and this level of uncertainty is constant and resonant and does not occur in neighboring countries,” said Gómez Minujin.
“A new recession has started again, unfortunately we will experience a recession with inflation.”
Facundo Gomez Munujin
President of AmCham
However, the executive said AmCham believes the country is facing a crucial year, as it will be necessary to elect a president. “Not only is it a crucial year, but we are facing a great opportunity, Let’s hope we don’t waste it this time”held.
Gómez Minujin invited the audience, made up of directors of the country’s leading companies, to take on a leading role from the private sector, because we too are part of the solution”.
And he stated that if the country begins to have clear and stable rules, if it manifests an ethical and transparent environment, “we as active leaders of the private sector must leave behind doubts and invest to be protagonists of the coming Argentina. We must run the riskthat is our role, and we remain hopeful that Argentina can and will improve.”
The role of the state
The number one of AmCham underlined that in the last decade there has been no growth in private employment or in the volume of exports. “In contrast, the biggest employer has been the national and provincial governments. It’s also up to us to reverse this trend.”
In this sense, he stated that it is necessary eliminate the fiscal deficitbe given true independence of the central bank and cut “excessive government spending”.
Going forward, the executive said it is essential to collaborate in a work agenda between business and government and indicated the industries to focus on: energy, mining, petrochemicals, agri-food, electromobility, the knowledge economy and tourism.
“We must generate an agenda based on trade integration, the opening of new markets, the search for investments and the generation of quality employment,” he stressed.
Source: Clarin
