The World Bank provides $ 200 million in loans

After meeting with Treasury officials and IMF CEO Kristalina Georgieva to assess the Argentine crisis, Economy Minister Silvina Batakis took something concrete from Washington: The World Bank board approved on Monday a $ 200 million package to finance innovation and sustainable growth projects.

Batakis met Axel van Trotsenburg, the agency’s director of operations, in the late afternoon, and discussed the global impact of inflation and war in Ukraine and Argentina’s role in helping alleviate the global food crisis as an important agricultural producer.

They also discussed the macroeconomic situation in Argentina and their commitment to work together to protect the poor from the impact of inflation and other macroeconomic challenges, to improve basic services and infrastructure and advance the climate change agenda as a way to promote sustainable growth in Argentina, the Bank reported.

Beyond words, Batakis has obtained approval for a new 200 million project that will be implemented by the National Agency for Science and Technology Promotion and focuses on the creation of technology-based manufacturing companies, on supporting entrepreneurs and on access to private capital.

“Innovation plays an important role in diversifying sources of growth in a country like Argentina, which has skilled human capital, research capabilities and entrepreneurial energy,” said Jordan Schwartz, World Bank Director for Argentina, Paraguay. and Uruguay, present at the meeting. “Investing in this area promotes greener and more inclusive development, hand in hand with the creation of new jobs,” he added.

Batakis’ agenda continues this Tuesday in Washington with a meeting with Wall Street analysts and investors with interests in Argentina. He will also have meetings with representatives of American companies such as Google, Amazon, Chevron and General Motors, Moreover.

One of the minister’s objectives is to present himself in front of various interlocutors so that “they hear and know how he thinks” the new official, according to Ambassador Jorge Argüello, and also to present the lines of action that the Argentine government will adopt in the economic field. .

In Washington and Wall Street they look skeptical at the new official, which they consider a stranger. But beyond that, they believe he doesn’t have much room for maneuver in a government suffering from severe internal turmoil.

as he said Clarione former Argentine representative to the IMF Héctor Torres, “the biggest problem I see is credibility”. He added: “Both Lipton and Georgieva know that any compromise Batakis might make will have credibility equal to that of the government in which it sits.”