The Economic and Industrial Recovery for Argentina :New Opportunities for Investment Presented by His Excellency Mr. Julio M. de Vido, Minister of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services, Republic of Argentina UNIDO DG It is a great pleasure for me to be able to introduce a very dear friend as well as distinguished representative of the Argentine Government, the Minister for Federal Planning, Julio de Vido. A few months ago on an official visit I made to Argentina, I had the opportunity to meet the Minister once again. I had met him when he was in other positions, as a Minister of Economy, Minister of the Government of the Province of Santa Cruz, as well. A province that was under the government of governor Kirchner, who is now the President of our country following the elections that took place in the year 2003. At that time, as you might all be aware, the government which was led by President Kirchner, inherited a very complex situation from the political and economic point of view. Two years after that Argentina is once again able to enjoy a stable vigorous situation with well functioning democratic institutions, the function of which was never questioned, but nowadays, seems that it is being carried out in an harmonious way with a strong political leadership. It has enabled us to reorganize our economy and it has enabled the country to overcome a very profound crisis. The crisis that was experienced in the year 2001 was unprecedented. Once he took office, as you well know, Argentina has been able to show increases in its growth rate to 8 - 9 per cent per year, and recently the country has reorganized and put an end to the foreign debt situation. For this reason, we felt that it would be very important to invite some of the leading figures of the Argentine Government, in this case we have invited today, the Minister of Federal Planning. This way he has a chance to exchange with colleagues and officials from the various organizations and to talk about the process that is taking place in Argentina and well as prospects for the future with regard to investment and economic progress for the next few years. I would like to thank you all very very much for having come here. I know how busy you are. I know that you have very busy agendas and I am very happy to see you here sharing with in this day of debate and exchange of views. I am very sure that you will find that this reflective process is very useful because you will be able to compare the Argentine experience with that of other countries. I am also very thankful to Minister of Federal Planning. He was visiting Europe, accompanying the President of Argentina in an official visit to Germany. He has taken a couple of days in order to share his ideas and opinions with us. Once again, I would like to say, I believe this will be very useful to all of us. I think that the experience of the Minister of Federal Planning is very broad with regard to the management of the economy and because of the varied positions he has held in the government of the Province of Santa Cruz. His portfolio nowadays includes the planning of federal public investment and the negotiation infrastructure loans to support productive development and to promote employment creation in Argentina. Minister de Vido has been working for many years in a number of prestigious positions in Argentina’s province of Santa Cruz which has enabled him to accumulate a lot of experience both from the provincial point of view, taking into account the municipalities and their peculiarities, and it has also given him the chance to interact with people in the area This is a transcript of the English translation of the session with the Minister that took place on 15 April 2005 in UNIDO Board Room Vienna. The text has not been verified by the speakers The Economic and Industrial Recovery for Argentina :New Opportunities for Investment Presented by His Excellency Mr. Julio M. de Vido, Minister of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services, Republic of Argentina bringing him a better understanding of the problems of the various regions in the country. For this reason, we are very happy to have him with us today. Thank you very much Minister, for being here today. I would like to ask you to join me in welcoming Mr. Julio de Vido to the podium. Minister de Vido Good morning. Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Carlos Magariños; Ambassador of Argentina, Dr. Elsa Kelly; Ambassadors; entrepreneurs; industrialists; Europeans; citizens of the whole world who have come together in such a prestigious forum. In my country, when we talk about something being industrious, it means that we are talking about the noble nature of that person who is capable of transforming a raw material by adding value, by generating employment and enrichment to the country. Unfortunately in my country in the past ten years, this process took place the other way around. Happily we are now entering a phase of reconstruction in our economy. You will see from the figures that we can show you nowadays. You will see we are undergoing a process of recovery that will enable us to once again join the rest of the world, which is exactly what we are seeking. I would like to especially greet the Ambassadors from Latin American countries, our brothers, as well as Ambassadors from Africa, from Europe, from North America, from the Arab countries, all those of you who are present here this morning. We are very proud of the fact that you have come here to listen to us for a few moments. I would also like to express my greetings from my President, from the President of Argentina, Dr. Kirchner. I would also like to take this opportunity to make a few points about the current state of the Argentinian economy, more specifically, about the industrial activities in my country. As I said before, Argentina has undergone, in the past years, one of the major economic crises in its history. The consequences of this crisis are very well known throughout the world. And it has affected some of the countries represented by some of you here today. For example, the need to renegotiate the conditions for foreign debt for the Argentina State, my government has had as a duty the past few months the normalization of this process. But before we go ahead and talk about the possibilities of investment in my country, I would like to give you a brief overview of the main characteristics of Argentina today. My country is one of the emerging countries with the highest levels of income, both in the region and compared to developing economies. We see that according to figures from the International Monetary Fund for the year 2004, per capita income and purchasing power in Argentina is approximately US$1 billion per year, around nine thousand (million) Euro. This places our economy above the average for the whole of Latin America, including even above Central Europe. Because of its structure, production is highly diversified. On the one hand, we This is a transcript of the English translation of the session with the Minister that took place on 15 April 2005 in UNIDO Board Room Vienna. The text has not been verified by the speakers The Economic and Industrial Recovery for Argentina :New Opportunities for Investment Presented by His Excellency Mr. Julio M. de Vido, Minister of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services, Republic of Argentina have the availability of approximately two hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers of arable land as well as high productivity in the agricultural areas, making Argentina one of the most important actors at the world level. Our country is placed among the greater producers and exporters in primary agricultural products. There is also high development in all areas with regard to machinery; cultivation machinery and genetic development as well as biotechnology applied to agricultural activities. In the past 14 years, agricultural productivity increased more than one hundred per cent. And thanks to technological development, arable land increased by 50%. This shows our progress in terms of yield and productivity within the region. With regard to industry, industry is not only diversified in Argentina, it is also well integrated within the world. We have large international companies, both Argentine in origin as well as foreign, which have been operating in our country for decades in all sectors. Thus we see that we produce six million tones of soya oil and aluminium. Five million tones of steel, seven hundred thirty two thousand tones of seamless tubes and almost 300,000 vehicles / cars are produced yearly. Grain production goes up to 80 thousand million tones with prospects for the next five years of increasing up to 100 tones. This is a national objective or target. At the international level this is also a big goal, because it is one of the most important sources of food products on the planet with regard to soy, wheat, corn etc. The industrial profile is characterized by good coordination with the production of other products, high index of employment, high capital intensive activities and export orientation as well as the presence of companies from all countries in the world. Some economic indicators that might be mentioned are the following, the manufactured goods exports both in agricultural areas as well as in the industrial area, represent more than 30% of GNP in the goods producing sectors and 15% of GDP.