Ha-Joon Chang, South Korean economist visited Argentina this week and participated in various activities organized by Fundar and the Federal Investment Council with political and academic leaders. The specialist told about the development achieved in his country and the opportunities for Argentina to achieve it.
Chang also met with the president Alberto Fernandezthe pre-candidates Daniel Scioli, Eduardo de Pedro and Martin Lousteauthe Buenos Aires Minister of Human Development and Habitat, Maria Miglioreand its pair of Economic Development and Production, Jose Luis Giusti. In turn, he shared talks with the governors of the Province of Buenos Aires and Chaco, Axel Kicillof and Jorge Capitanich, respectively.
On the current situation in the country, he considered: “The general quality of human resources caught my attention, that gives me hope but also makes me angry. What are they doing with these great people? And in some way these brilliant human resources are wasted”, expressed chang to balance mode of your visit in a talk he had with the president of Fundar, Sebastián Ceria, in the offices of the center for public policy research and design.
According to the SOAS University London professor, Argentina “undoubtedly needs a new social pact” to achieve long-term policies and lower inflation, which is “a political problem” whose resolution implies “some commitment from all”. Inflation is actually a very lazy way to resolve a distribution conflict within society”, he added.
“If you have an unstable macroeconomic environment that is also very hostile to long-term planning due to high inflation and uncertainty, then you cannot develop your productive economyChang mused. However, he added that “the most important reason for the Argentine economic instability is the inability to generate enough exports”.
Argentina invests little in R&D (0.5% of GDP), compared to other countries in the region with similar levels of income such as Brazil (1.2%) or countries such as China (2.4%), Sweden (3 .5%) and South Korea (4.4%) with 4.5% South Korea or 3.5% Sweden. “There can be no sustainable development without investing in R&D, there is no way they can move forward without spending significant resources on Research and Development and more broadly developing certain sectors of the economy,” said Chang, who has provided financial advice to various countries and non-governmental organizations, as well as the United Nations. United Nations and multilateral financial organizations such as the World Bank.
In this regard, he stated that “Argentina has agricultural resources, mineral resources, gas” but you must make sure that “the currencies you are generated are invested in higher productivity industries that can generate larger and more stable exports. And second, make sure develop these industries with a more intensive use of technologies”.
When asked about the dollarization proposal that they support from space La Libertad Avanzathe South Korean economist emphasized that the decision of Accepting the dollar as the official currency would be “crazy” because “it makes you a cologne of the United States, it means that your macroeconomic policies are going to be written in Washington DC”.
Source: Ambito
