The study shows that, for the first time since 2017, annual exports of the Argentine Knowledge Economy grew compared to the previous year. The year-on-year variation reached 14% showing a significant recovery that takes the level of annual exports to 87% of its historical maximum, which occurred in the 1st quarter of 2018.
If we add to this that the export of services is the third source of foreign currency income to the country, there is no doubt that Argentine talent is increasingly attractive abroad. In the case of the EY GDS, for example, We started with 200 employees 10 years ago and today we are more than 2,000, exporting quality services and with a growth projection of 35% of our local plant in 2022.
This encouraging panorama coexists with another that is far from accompanying the growth of the country: the brain drain. Tempted by the exchange gap between the official dollar and the free dollar, local professionals decide to go after remote opportunities, receiving income, in principle, more attractive than in companies based in Argentina. According to Argenconomics, It is estimated that this “informal economy” has generated unregistered exports of US$1.8 billion during 2021, about 30% of the official ones.
Faced with this loss of competitiveness that derives in the phenomenon of “blue job”it is the shared responsibility of the companies and the State to continue promoting improvements to alleviate this flight, retain talent and continue contributing to the local economy.
We know that there are incentives, such as the Knowledge Economy Law, which drive the sector and generate added value, but it does not seem to be enough in such a competitive context. This must be accompanied, from now on, by measures promoted by companies in the sector that encourage talent to choose local companies, from economic benefits and training, to value propositions in terms of sustainability, diversity and inclusion.
Strengthening the knowledge economy industry in the creation of export value in our country continues to be a challenge for all of us and it has been shown that we are on the right path.
Location Leader of EY Global Delivery Services Argentina
Source: Ambito
