Jean Pierre Antelo, new president of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Industry, Commerce, Service and Tourism (Cainco), in his first speech criticized that “politics ate management” and He pointed to the three levels of government as the cause.
“Until a few days ago, I had a message that I wanted to share with you. Everything changed when I passed through the center and vand hundreds of people in the middle of the intense heat lining up to buy dollars.
Later I saw the same situation on television, endless lines in front of the Central Bank of Bolivia in La Paz. That was and continues to be the theme of these weeks“Antelo said.
This situation, according to his criteria, generates discouragement, uncertainty and hopelessness in big businessmen. who have always been characterized by looking at the future with optimism in the midst of adverse situations.
Antelo pointed out that the situation “is out of our control, out of the control of the businessmen” and that is due to three situations that must be resolved.
The first, Bolivia went from thinking about the bicentennial to navigating in the midst of uncertainty and instability. Official data indicates that
from being the most dynamic country in South America for several years thanks to the boom in raw materials, it is now the second least recovered economy together with Ecuador, observed the businessman.
“From being a country that net exported more than 5,000 million dollars a year of hydrocarbons we have become a net importer of at least $1 billion in fuels. From being a country with small fiscal surpluses for eight years, we have become one of nine years of high deficits that have led us to be one of the riskiest economies in South America, as recently indicated by international organizations and rating agencies. And of being an economy with a record in international foreign exchange reserves, now we don’t even know how much they arewhere they are and where they are going”, criticized Antelo.
underlined what the current economic policy is unsustainable and that under this course in economic management “we are heading dangerously towards a situation of chaos and anarchy.”
The obstacles
Antelo indicated that family businesses are under attack, because in recent years companies have experienced an adverse business climate in many ways. If it had not been the conjunctural external boom, the situation would have been even more critical.
“For ideological reasons, they have deliberately limited our right to contribute to society with more and better production. They have applied restrictions to exports, prohibiting the use of new biotechnology events, filling us with inspections and bureaucratic procedures. This past Wednesday, bullies entered a productive property, there were several injuries and there are deaths. Where are the authorities?” Antelo lamented.
Politics
For Antelo, the current scenario is due to: “politics destroyed management, he simply ate it up, erased it, made it disappear. We have the most important agro-industrial region in the country. Just to give an example: the soybean season has started; thousands of trucks will circulate in the East of the department and I wonder When will we have a double track to Pailón? When will we pave the remaining 30 kilometers before the largest bridge in the country joins the “Integrated North” with the “East Zone”? When will the different levels of government agree for the miracle to happen, no matter who the saint is?Antelo wondered.
The new president of Cainco maintained that Santa Cruz is emerging from a dengue epidemic and it is absurd that the discussion between the authorities focuses on legal powers and not on measures to combat the epidemic.
He also stated that in the metropolitan area the Industrial Park generated another fight between the departmental and municipal levels of government that prevents solutions from being sought, while industries continue to operate in deplorable conditions.
“Solve management problems once and for all. Get rid of your political interests. Stop making excuses and pretexts,” Antelo demanded.
Action
In the final part of his speech, Antelo specified that they cannot have a passive behavior and allow “a spiral of political, economic and social crisis.”
“We must dispassionately analyze structural issues that are eating away at us. Among them, the current fuel subsidy scheme, the relevance of a new exchange regime and what to do with loss-making public companies“Antelo said.
He stressed that the business community should not allow itself to be distracted from the objective of having that different country. A Bolivia where every citizen can live, work and undertake without fear.
