With the presence of more than 350 businessmen, economists and political leaders, this Monday the IDEA Agribusiness experience, a prelude to the colloquium that will be held during October in Mar del Plata. After the event, Ámbito was able to talk with the executive director of the entity, Daniel Gonzalezwho rejected proposals for labor flexibilityhighlighted improvements in business expectations and celebrated the innovative capacity of the agro-industrial sector.
Journalist: We are in the run-up to the presidential elections, how does it impact the business climate?
Daniel González: Any electoral period generates uncertainty, we are in a situation in which there is no candidate who is going to win for sure. They had been talking about three thirds, but now it seems that they are not three thirds, although there are clearly three political forces that are ahead of the rest. Uncertainty always humps and in a delicate situation like the one we are in now, much more. Just as there is uncertainty, there is hope and expectation. Clearly if you ask all the businessmen, they will tell you: I want it to be August 14 and for that uncertainty to go down.
Q.: You mentioned that there is hope and expectation. Some of this is reflected in the latest survey that IDEA did to businessmen…
DG: Yes, it is an annual survey that has several questions. When you ask how they are now compared to a year ago, the answer is no. But the positive part is when you ask how you think you’re going to be a year from now. Approximately half say that we are going to be better or much better, that is the best mark since the pre-pandemic. We see it as a positive sign.
Q.: To what factors do you assign this improvement in expectations?
DG: It has to do with many factors. There is widespread optimism regarding the opportunity that highly dynamic sectors of the economy have. There is also a perception of a change in government, not necessarily of a political nature because we don’t know, but that is being perceived as something positive. In addition, we are coming out of the drought and assuming a normal year with respect to the rains. Finally, what I would say is that the world is going to be helping us, we are entering a better situation with very good commodity prices.
Q.: In recent days there has been talk of the possibility of labor flexibility, how do you see this type of initiative?
DG: We have been working on the employment problem for a long time in the colloquiums. I feel that businessmen at IDEA are obsessed with creating employment and quality employment. But the way we approach it is not with the request for a mega labor reform or with phrases such as labor flexibility, but with concrete measures that can contribute to job creation. From IDEA we never talk about a labor reform, we do not believe that there are serious problems in labor legislation.
Q.: And what proposals are you working on?
DG: Last year we discussed the issue of fines and how that had been privatized in the 1990s: the fines have to be collected by the State and thus remove an incentive for litigation. That was very well taken by the different political spaces and in fact it became a bill, which has not yet been addressed because Congress is not in session. Another example is a letter to which many institutions joined on the capitalization of interest in labor loans, there are labor lawsuits that are becoming unpayable, especially for SMEs. What we say from IDEA is that there are a lot of constructive things that we can work on that are not labor reform and that have much more impact.
Q.: What conclusion can you take from the Idea Agroindustria experience?
DG: We always leave Rosario very energized, we listen to innovative, disruptive proposals, we get to know new companies, we had very interesting panels. The things that are created in Argentina and, above all, in a sector as dynamic as the agro-industrial sector are impressive.
Source: Ambito
