The meeting was held before a full room at the Ministry of Productive Development. The Secretary of Mining, Fernanda Ávila, assured that the objective of the mining table open to the community is to “eradicate myths”, so that mining can be developed under “strict” environmental standards. “Argentina is experiencing an investment boom, it has the minerals for the transition to clean energy, we want to give the debate,” said Ávila.
Along the same lines, Kulfas indicated that it is a “hinge stage” because the world demands more and more minerals that Argentina has, such as copper and lithium. “Mining can offer part of the solutions to the problems that the country has,” he assured, and mentioned the case of Chile, which in 2021 exported US$60 billion in minerals, 20 times more than Argentina, “and with the same Mountain range”.
Next to Kulfas, the president of the Central Bank, Miguel Ángel Pesce, mentioned data related to currencies: in the last 10 years, US$34 billion were exported, the exchange balance had a surplus of US$42 billion and foreign direct investment It was for a net of US$5.7 billion. “For every dollar that it invests, it generates 4 dollars of surplus in the exchange balance,” said Pesce, who sentenced: “We place our hopes in mining to overcome the external restriction.”
“I get excited when I read that there are investment projects for US$12 billion, I would like to see it reflected in the exchange balance as soon as possible, we could quadruple exports, there is extraordinary potential to work on,” he said. In fact, he anticipated that it will be a “key” sector to reach the Government’s goal of reaching US$100 billion in annual exports, a figure that would allow “relaxing the exchange administration.” At this point, he mentioned that there are “intense discussions” with the mining companies over the claims of the parent companies for the flow of dollars and the purchase of supplies.
Also on stage, the head of AFIP, Mercedes Marcó del Pont, referred to the questions raised about tax evasion: mining represents less than 1 point of GDP, but the contribution of the activity exceeds 3% of collection total. “There is the idea that the State does not know what is exported in mining. We work in our own Customs laboratories and in those that Segemar has, where samples are taken of everything that is exported, ”she assured. Regarding employment, the Minister of Labor, Claudio Moroni, was present, who mentioned that mining has wages that are 2.5 times the average and with 85% formalization.
questions
At the end of the meeting, it was the turn of the members of civil society organizations to speak. From EcoHouse they assured that their presence “does not legitimize the progress of mining” and they read a series of questions, about the lack of the presence of Minister Juan Cabandié and what model of country is thought with a regulation of the Menem. “How can we trust the data from the provinces if Governor Arcioni said one thing during the campaign and then did another?” he asked himself. Along the same lines, from Youth for Climate they asked that transparent control be guaranteed and quoted Greta Thunberg: “We are going to be watching them.”
Before closing, Kulfas answered the questions: he said that Cabandié was not on the agenda and that is why Cecilia Nicolini from the Ministry of the Environment was there; Regarding the exploitation model, he mentioned that the idea is industrialization and therefore the electromobility bill. Without mentioning Arcioni, he commented: “I agree with the lack of coherence from politics.” He mentioned that the controls are not in charge of the companies, but of the State. “In the city there are landslides and no one thinks of banning construction,” he said and concluded: “We are not interested in any investment that does not take care of the environment.”
Source: Ambito
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