Council of the Americas: Sergio Massa has promised CEOs more incentives and less expenses

As soon as he entered the revolving door, journalists and businessmen rushed on Sergio Massa. There were flashes, greetings and hugs. It was 12:30 when he stepped onto the red carpet of the Alvear Palace. In the main hall, About 600 executives were eager to hear new signals on the trend and the Minister of Economy tried to contain them with announcements of investment incentives, spending restrictions and external financing.

“Our responsibility as a government, as statesmen, is to ensure social peace and macroeconomic order. Without macroeconomic stability there is no social peace, but without social peace there is also no macroeconomic stability,” he said a day later. march of the CGT, at the end of the conference organized by the Council of the Americas, a business forum founded in the 1960s by David Rockefeller and other US investors.

Ten days after taking charge of the Ministry of Economy, Massa He denied that unification of the areas under his command would turn his portfolio into a “super-ministry” and ratified his program to reduce fiscal redundancy, stop the loss of reserves and contain poverty.. In this context, he presented several measures focused on accelerating the arrival of foreign currency, on a day in which the parallel dollars have risen.

One of these is the regulation of the extension of the Construction Laundering Act, a regime that promotes the free availability of dollars and tax benefits in private construction. He said the standard will be ready on Monday. In 2021, only $ 200 million was laundered due to delayed implementation and limited entry deadlines. Now, with more facilities, the government expects to bring in $ 4.5 billion.

Also, he announced it next week hopes to approve a mining promotion scheme, similar to that of the hydrocarbon sector, but with benefits depending on the level of added value. And he tried to show progress in stalled negotiations with agribusiness. He assured that there are already operations with cereal companies to anticipate exports and that they are looking for a mechanism to allow producers to sell their cereals “faster”.

Regarding the financing, the minister said that an Asian group, another European and another North American approached him by proposing to make a “Repo”, a loan at a rate that Argentina cannot obtain today. The government would offer bonds as collateral, with the aim of raising $ 2 billion. “We are proposing to unify offers for debt repurchase and reserve strengthening,” he said.

On the other hand, he said that this Friday a loan will be signed with the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) for 750 million dollars in infrastructure projects, social development and AYSA works, and will meet funds from Kuwait and other Arab countries to obtain a $ 50 million loan for Córdoba and Santa Fe. Negotiations are also underway with the World Bank and the IDB, which has begun to release funds.

On the fiscal front, the official ratified the 2.5% primary deficit target agreed with the IMF; In this sense, he highlighted the new regime for the removal of subsidies, which implies increases in the rates of between 50 and 150%; and announced that, in addition to the freezing of income employed by the various public administration offices, hiring in state-owned companies will also be suspended, where it is estimated that 90 thousand employees are.

Finally, he anticipated that a decree will be presented tomorrow to transform social programs into employment plans and welcome over 200,000 beneficiaries. He assured that he is working on two measures to improve incomes with entrepreneurs and trade unions, which will be called to an economic and social agreement, and that in the next few days two new soft credit lines will be launched for a total of 530,000 million dollars.