President Luis Lacalle Pou led the opening ceremony of the UPM port terminal on Wednesday and remarked that the investment shows that Uruguay respects contracts and laws, seeks productive development and is an appropriate place for future business due to its political stability. The president was accompanied by the secretary and deputy secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado and Rodrigo Ferrés, respectively; the transport ministers, José Luis Falero; Industry, Omar Paganini; Interior, Luis Alberto Heber; Economy, Azucena Arbeleche; Work, Pablo Mieres; Livestock, Fernando Mattos; Defense, Javier Garcia; Tourism, Tabaré Viera, and Housing, Irene Moreira; the mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse, and the president of UPM, Jussi Pesonen, among other government and private sector authorities. The act was also attended by ex-hierarchs of the previous government, in whose management UPM2 began to take shape. In this sense, the former Minister of Transport and Public Works, Víctor Rossi, the former Undersecretary of Economy, Pablo Ferreri (today in the Municipality of Montevideo) and the former director of OPP, Álvaro García, attended. The mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse, was also present. During the ribbon-cutting, the president called Rossi, who was in the audience, by his name to take the podium. One of the pieces of the inaugural tape of the mega-work was for the former Secretary of State and trusted man of former President Tabaré Vázquez, cut with scissors by the president.
four milestones
Lacalle Pou mentioned some milestones that made international investment possible, such as the forest law, the port law, the investment protection treaty with Finland and the new UPM plant in the Centenario town, which will be inaugurated shortly.
«I want to stand on top of three or four milestones that should have three or four presidents here next to me. The first is the Forest Law of 1987 (President Julio María Sanguinetti), the second is the Law of Ports 16,246 of 1992 (President Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera) which obviously was not followed or understood by many, the third that happened the same is the Investment Protection Treaty with Finland (Law 17,759 – President Jorge Batlle) and the fourth on this site is the new plant of UPM (President Tabaré Vázquez) that is about to be inaugurated and at this moment we are in the inauguration by the facilities ».
«What was there? There were people who had a vision, who had a commitment, who received criticism that is always welcome, but they also understood that this was the way to go. Some call continuity State policy, but I like to call it national policy, because when it belongs to the State, it is subsumed to the state and public. National policies are the public and the private that it accompanies”, stated Lacalle Pou. He added that today what we celebrate “is a continuity, obviously in the straightening of paths and with changes in some things. The transition took place in full negotiation with the company and I want to reaffirm what José Luis (Falero) said. Those very long meetings that took place in which we had nuances or some small differences led to the civilized negotiation in respect of the contracts and the company’s vision of wanting to continue, in some way they straightened out things that we understood had been left untied. or that they had not ended in the best way.
On the occasion, the President of the Republic celebrated that investments continue to arrive in the country and considered that it is an achievement based on long-term policies, respect for contracts and laws, but, mainly, the quality of Uruguayan society. Likewise, he appreciated that national companies prepare to develop this type of works and that thousands of Uruguayan workers adapt to new technologies.
“This moment speaks of the best Uruguay, of what happened and on which we have to stop to continue building,” stressed Lacalle Pou, who pointed out the importance of continuing with the industrial process and preparing the population, as happens at the UTEC in Fray Bentos, in which a virtuous circle was created between business and education.
“There will always be very genuine political and ideological differences, but there is a national synthesis, which is what makes us great, and in such a turbulent region, Uruguay once again becomes a place for investments to arrive and more opportunities to be generated,” he asserted.
For his part, Minister Falero stressed that it is a special day, because it represents the image that the country offers and demonstrates how it converts investments into State policies.
“It marks a real possibility of development in the generation of opportunities for our people. For this to happen, it is not enough to give continuity to the State policy, but it is necessary that abroad they see us as an attractive country to land these investments. This is what happened here”, said the chief, who valued the growth of national companies to respond to UPM’s demands.
“In Uruguay things are possible. The State clearly marked international policy by being open. We hope to finish the process with a railway project to adapt the network to the new technologies that will be incorporated into the country, which will provide development in other railway branches. It is an opportunity that Uruguay did not miss, because it wants to develop and show that it has open doors for growth”, he assured.
Finally, Jussi Pesonen considered that this work is key to the growth of Uruguay and the result of a path of more than three decades, based on trust, stability and predictability.
“Uruguay is an ideal partner, because it is serious, reliable, with clear rules and legal frameworks, with political and economic stability, support for investments and strong development of national companies that increased the number of contracts in this work tenfold,” expressed the president of UPM.
