Accompanied by a good part of his team, including his eventual Minister of Economy, Diego LabatDelgado highlighted his proposal to create a Ministry of Commercewhich would join the tasks of Chancellery, becoming a possible new coalition government in the Trade and Foreign Affairs portfolio.
“The trade part is widely distributed among four or five ministries, with different responsibilities: Economy, Industry, Foreign Affairs, Uruguay XXI, Cattle raisingand someone has to coordinate that,” the candidate argued.
Delgado gave as an example the health permits in terms of animal or vegetable protein, or agricultural products, as needs for promoting foreign trade. “We are going to take two paths, which is to give a ministry the institutional coordination of that, which is the Ministry of Commerce, to separate what is diplomatic and what is commercial, and to give Uruguay XXI an upgrade. To give it another budget and another status so that it has the autonomy and coordination necessary to be an agency for the production of Uruguayan exports, to present Uruguay to the world,” he explained.
The economic agenda
Entering the economic agenda, the candidate of the ruling party was emphatic in differentiating himself from the opposition. “I rule out raising taxes and, in addition, I will go through a process of improving the comprehensive competitiveness, “This has to do with discounting a number of direct or indirect taxes that end up affecting competitiveness. I announced the elimination of the consular fee. Today we are going to generate a level of competitiveness that was not there before, investing what has been invested in roads, in airports,” explained the former Secretary of the Presidency.
Delgado went even further and said that “there are things that if the opposition wins will go backwards in an almost irreversible way, I am convinced of that.” “We are moving forward in this direction that is a direction of openness, of investmentof employmentof freedom for all, for those who want to work, for those who want to strike, but at the same time, of certainties,” he said.
In line with a defense of his management, Delgado, who proudly defined himself as the government candidate, put some data on the table. “We are two and a half points less than unemploymentwe created almost 90,000 jobs, we have the largest real wage in the last 49 years. We opened the economy, 2022 was the record exports“We did things that were linked to a responsible economic and fiscal policy and we will continue to do so,” he said.
On the possible approval of the plebiscite that seeks to repeal the social security reformthe leader of the National Party He was emphatic and stated that it would be “a direct impact on the economy, pensions and the sustainability “If this is approved, the next day we will have a VAT increase of a few points, to be able to pay pensions. It is a collapse, a political irresponsibility,” said the nationalist candidate.
Satisfaction among organizers
For his part, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Julio Cesar Lestidodescribed the meeting as “very positive, where we were able to speak frankly about the issues that we raised and, on the other hand, talk about the document that we prepared and that was handed over to the political parties with parliamentary representation, which is the Pact for the Homeland”.
The businessman mentioned some of the issues included in the document. “Security It is one of the issues that we consider important for society. The trade and services sector moves in society, and if society was affected by the issue of security, which is one of the issues that matters most to us Uruguayans today, trade will also be affected without a doubt. Everything that has to do with the drop in the cost of the State, which is very important for us. Training and formation and the incorporation of technologies in companies. The sustainability, among others,” said Lestido.
The business spokesman expressed satisfaction with the current administration, especially in economic matters. “The government promised not to increase taxes And that is a reality. So I think that yes, progress has been made. We also have to recognize that there are things that have been done before, there are things that the government has accelerated and has carried out more quickly,” he concluded.
Source: Ambito
