President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner spoke yesterday at Technópolis in front of thousands of entrepreneurs from all productive sectors about imports, exchange rates, the technology sector and many more themes in honour of Industry Day.
The speech, which was televised across all national stations from 10:20 pm until 11:30 pm, marks the 16th time President Fernández has appealed to the nation through public television.
“You may think that I am going to start by talking about an economic model,” began Cristina in her speech, “But today we are not facing an economic model . . . industrialization is not a variable in a model but instead responds to the political project of the nation . . . some believe that economics need to be fixed or static but the heart of our project is growth, the generation of work, consumption, and reindustrialization.”
President Fernández continued by blasting sectors that are demanding a cheaper Peso in correlation with a stronger US dollar, while defending the exchange rate and import controls.
“The administered exchange rate has enabled us to grow: we must look after the exchange rate and continue along this path to ensure the substitution of imports help with an accessible exchange rate,” said the President.
Cristina also took the opportunity to criticize, without naming, Hugo Moyano saying, “This is the first time the trade union sector has called for a devaluation because the first to be affected by this would be the workers, it would impact the heart of their salaries. But it is key for the industry to continue with the import substitution, we need a balanced exchange rate.”
President Fernández insisted that Argentina is a country where salaries are agreed in wage councils, and that it is home to the highest industrial salary, which according to her are “reasons to celebrate.”
The President also referred to her policies regarding imports, one of the more controversial topics in the business community. She strongly defended the recent changes saying, “in regard to restrictions there are many urban myths.”
“There is a commercial battle in the world and what we are going to continue doing is defending the national industry,” she said.
Cristina also promised a new worker’s risk insurance law that will be instated in 2013 and the updating of compensation payments in the wage council.
The President also noted the importance of the software, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology sectors in which Argentina is fifth in the world. She asked banks to accelerate the distribution of loans for production in these sectors.
“We are going to grow, maybe not like in 2010 and 2011, but we are going to grow none the less,” said President Fernández at the end of her speech.
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