The President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández; its Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán; the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi; and his counterpart from the UIA, Miguel Acevedo; among other authorities and representatives of the business world.
Antonio Garamendi: "We businessmen have the obligation to be optimistic to face the prompt and effective economic recovery that allows us to get out of the crisis."
The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), member of the Council of Ibero-American Entrepreneurs (CEIB) and CEOE's counterpart, closed the 26th Industrial Conference yesterday, December 3, under the slogan: "# Producing Argentina: federal agenda for recovery and growth" . The President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, took part in the closing of this event, which began on November 30; the Argentine Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán; the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi; or his counterpart from the UIA, Miguel Acevedo; among other prominent authorities and representatives of the business world.
The meeting was divided into an opening session, in which Axel Kicillof, governor of the province of Buenos Aires; Martín Rappallini, president of the Union of Industrialists of the province of Buenos Aires (UIPBA); and Silvio Zurzolo, president of the Association of Industrialists of the Argentine capital (ADIBA); and in three panels that addressed the path to sustainable economic recovery, the future of work: challenges for the recovery of formal employment, and employers, workers and the State: a comprehensive strategy for the future of production and employment. The day was closed by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; the president of the UIA, Miguel Acevedo; the president of the 26th Industrial Conference, Daniel Funes de Rioja; and the young president of this Conference, Agustina Schcolnik. The permanent secretary of CEIB and general director of CEOE Internacional, Narciso Casado, also participated in the event.
Collaboration in times of crisis
The President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández highlighted in the closing session that “We all collaborate, businessmen, workers and the State, and we managed to cope with the worst moment, and that guaranteed that no one was left without the medical attention they required. And now things started to take another direction, which is what we have been working for all this time. This is the moment".
In turn, the Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel, assured in a message via streaming that “Argentina is a partner highly appreciated by Germany, both in the G20 and bilaterally. The pandemic is hitting Argentina in a very tense economic situation, and it is very important to regain the trust of international creditors and market players ”.
Thematic panels
In the first thematic panel of the day, "Towards a path of sustainable economic recovery", the Minister of Economy of the Nation, Martín Guzmán and Diego Coatz, executive director and chief economist of the UIA, discussed the prospects for the short and long term for the country's economy. In this sense, Guzmán stated that “we want an Argentina that meets five conditions: that includes and generates work; that generates added value; that has stability; that has a development criteria with federal equity; and that sovereignty is respected. In this scheme, the industry is central ”.
Future of work in the face of economic recovery
The Conference continued with “The future of work: challenges for the recovery of formal employment”. The president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi; Globant's co-founder and Director of Personnel, Martín Umarán; the head of the UIA Social Policy department, Laura Giménez; and the Secretary General of the Argentine Republic Construction Workers Union (UOCRA), Gerardo Martínez. The speakers spoke of the importance of an agenda to generate a labor ecosystem that provides answers to the dilemmas of formal employability, that allows the creation of jobs and that promotes work skills to improve the competitiveness of our economy.
The president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, emphasized the instruments to support companies that have been launched in Spain since the beginning of the pandemic, such as the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTEs); ICO credits worth 100,000 million euros; and a fund managed by the State of 10 billion euros in case some companies had to be helped. Garamendi highlighted the importance of social dialogue in Spain for 40 years, as the best formula for the country's development; and he underlined "the important advances that have been made in the field of digitization, since we are the third country in the world with the most fiber optic deployed, only behind Japan and Korea." He positively valued teleworking for the future and highlighted the work carried out by the CEOE Foundation to cover the most social aspect of the pandemic (feeding the most disadvantaged, helping children in the field of computing in order to continue with their education or the donation of companies for protective equipment, among other projects). Garamendi also reported on the launch of a special office to manage the fund granted by the EU worth 140,000 million euros, to transform the country through star projects, which include such important areas as digitization, sustainability or the circular economy, among others. "Entrepreneurs have the obligation to be optimistic to face the prompt and effective economic recovery that allows us to get out of the crisis," he declared.
"Entrepreneurs, workers and the State: a comprehensive strategy for the future of production and employment" was the last thematic panel of the day. They participated in the same Claudio Moroni, Minister of Labor of the Nation; Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO); Héctor Daer, General Secretary of CGT; and Marysol Rodríguez, secretary of the UIA Joven. All of them highlighted the fundamental role of tripartite dialogue in resuming the path of growth and job creation.
You can consult more information in the UIA website; access the photos of the center at this link.
