NewsWhore
07-30-2009, 03:10 PM
Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday, the president of the National Business Council (CONEP), Lisandro Macarrulla said that the country needed to change its economic model for a more sustainable one. Macarrulla advocates moving from a consumer model to one based on production.
During his talk, titled "Towards a Sustainable Social and Economic Model", he said: "We have come to believe that we can resolve everything with the money that comes from remittances, or from increasing the public debt, or attracting more capital. It would seem as if we do not need the productive sectors, rather just financing for consumption."
According to Hoy newspaper, the business leader also called for a change in the role of the state that seems to invest only when loans are available. He said this has "increased the public debt to unprecedented levels."
He said that consumption was 86.2% of the GDP in 1991, and in 2008 it had increased to 91.3%. This was aggravated by the fact that in 2008 investment and consumption reached 113% of GDP, and with the surplus in spending, above all spending on consumption, financed by external resources, basically with imports of goods and services.
He said that there has to be a logical reason why agriculture does not prosper and the country has declined from being a major exporter of farm products to a food importer. He says this also helps explain why local industry has not been able to get past the threshold reached decades ago and that tourism is unsteady.
He added that the country "has been the dumbfounded spectator as the free trade agreements that are signed only benefit the foreign counterparts."
In addition, he rejected claims that local business idiosyncrasies or psychological quirks were the culprits.
He criticized the fact that the government is taking on debt not to invest, but to spend. He said that in 1990 subsidies and the service of the public debt was 22% of the total budget, but by 2007 these were more than 40%. He said there is a need to promote policies that stimulate more savings and investment, and less consumption.
He said that if we wanted things to change, government needed to act differently. "For that, its first responsibility is to impose the rule of the law. That means that the government must reinvent itself, but a strong government does not mean one that is bigger, rather one that is smaller and more efficient."
When introducing the speaker, AmCham's president, Alejandro Pena Prieto stressed that the government needs to fulfill its role as planner and promoter of public policies, regulator and supervisor, and stimulator of competitiveness."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)
During his talk, titled "Towards a Sustainable Social and Economic Model", he said: "We have come to believe that we can resolve everything with the money that comes from remittances, or from increasing the public debt, or attracting more capital. It would seem as if we do not need the productive sectors, rather just financing for consumption."
According to Hoy newspaper, the business leader also called for a change in the role of the state that seems to invest only when loans are available. He said this has "increased the public debt to unprecedented levels."
He said that consumption was 86.2% of the GDP in 1991, and in 2008 it had increased to 91.3%. This was aggravated by the fact that in 2008 investment and consumption reached 113% of GDP, and with the surplus in spending, above all spending on consumption, financed by external resources, basically with imports of goods and services.
He said that there has to be a logical reason why agriculture does not prosper and the country has declined from being a major exporter of farm products to a food importer. He says this also helps explain why local industry has not been able to get past the threshold reached decades ago and that tourism is unsteady.
He added that the country "has been the dumbfounded spectator as the free trade agreements that are signed only benefit the foreign counterparts."
In addition, he rejected claims that local business idiosyncrasies or psychological quirks were the culprits.
He criticized the fact that the government is taking on debt not to invest, but to spend. He said that in 1990 subsidies and the service of the public debt was 22% of the total budget, but by 2007 these were more than 40%. He said there is a need to promote policies that stimulate more savings and investment, and less consumption.
He said that if we wanted things to change, government needed to act differently. "For that, its first responsibility is to impose the rule of the law. That means that the government must reinvent itself, but a strong government does not mean one that is bigger, rather one that is smaller and more efficient."
When introducing the speaker, AmCham's president, Alejandro Pena Prieto stressed that the government needs to fulfill its role as planner and promoter of public policies, regulator and supervisor, and stimulator of competitiveness."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)