President Alberto Fernández today led the 67th Annual Convention of the Argentine Chamber of Construction (Camarco), within the framework of the act the president affirmed that “public works is the engine of the economy and we support it with facts, systematically increasing the budget.” When construction improves, the economy improves, and when the economy improves, construction improves. The more than 5,000 works that are currently in execution and the good results of the indicators of the activity of the sector, “said the President during the closing of the event. The Camarco Convention brought together representatives of the business, trade union, political and social arc to discuss the current situation of the construction industry and reflect on strategies to achieve the common development objectives of the country. Despite the good indicators shown by the sector, there are certain business concerns about the context of high inflation and rising costs and the signs of fiscal prudence carried out by the Government with the aim of stabilizing the financial and exchange rate fronts. In that sense, the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis stressed that in the last year “the portfolio of public works was doubled and today there are 5,300 works throughout the country,” to then ensure that “next year in Argentina there will be more public works than ever.” The President decided from the first day to put public works as an engine, these are not simple years but the political will to target public works was reaffirmed and that has a reflection in the budget, “said Katopodis.The Minister of Public Works, in turn, stressed that “there is a constant and sustained increase in public investment in infrastructure. We have the prospect of meeting the execution of the $600 billion budget for this year and we foresee more than $850 billion for next year.” If these objectives are met, the official said that the projected figures for next year would imply a 653% increase compared to the budget of the year prior to the start of his administration ($133,031 million in 2019). This year’s budget is already 349% higher than that of 2019, it was reported. In the same vein, the Minister of Territorial Development and Habitat, Jorge Ferraresi, said that the central objective of his portfolio is “to value the right to housing”, stressed that the Government has already delivered 56,386 new units and maintained that “by 2024 the public policy objective should be to build 100,000 homes per year”.
“For the first time in history there is a Ministry that deals in particular with Habitat and Territorial Development and that brings its results,” Ferraresi said during the afternoon when speaking at the panel “Sustainable Territorial Development” of the 67th Annual Convention.
Both officials highlighted the great increase in the number of works and in budgetary matters since the beginning of alberto Fernández’s administration.On the other hand, representatives of the private sector spoke in different panels, such as the president of the Argentine Industrial Union, Daniel Funes de Rioja; the head of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, Adelmo Gabbi; the president of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services, Mario Grinman; that of the Rural Society, Nicolás Pino; the chief economist of Adeba, Pablo Moauro.In addition, the president of the Association of Housing Entrepreneurs (AEV), Carlos Spina; the head of the Business Chamber of Urban Developers, Damián Tabakman; and the pro-secretary of Camarco, Ricardo Griot, among others. From the public sector were the head of Aysa, Malena Galmarini, the Minister of Territorial Development and Habitat, Jorge Ferraresi; and the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis.
