The Minister of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro, met with the Vice President of the World Bank for the Latin America and the Caribbean region, Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, to advance in the concretion of a loan that finances nearly 800 structural works for the development of the provinces that make up the Argentine Great North.
According to what Télam learned from sources in the Interior Ministry, the works surveyed within the framework of the Federal Development Plan have a total value of approximately 40 billion dollars, an initiative that Minister De Pedro and the governors of the Norte Grande presented to the international organizations in the mission to the United States in September.
“This is a new stage of the work that began more than two years ago with (then Provincial Secretaries) Silvina Batakis. You have the diagnosis to improve the competitiveness of the provinces and you need financing,” commented a national official.
The meeting of De Pedro and Jaramillo
The meeting of De Pedro and Jaramillo took place after the one they held with the governors of the Norte Grande during the tour that the Argentine leaders made last September through the United States.
“When we went, we presented the project to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Since then, there have been four more meetings with the World Bank until today“said the same source.
The objective is to obtain financing that exceeds the terms of the governments and that is disbursed in stages, as was done with the loan for the sanitation of the Matanza-Riuachuelo Basin.
On the other hand, sources from the Ministry dismissed the possibility of a political-electoral advantage of the negotiations, pointing out that “if the agreement were signed, for which legal steps are missing that would take everything to 2023, neither Wado nor the President (Alberto Fernandez), nor is anyone going to be able to cut a ribbon quickly.”
The participation of the governors is, according to officials, a necessary condition and a reassurance that the funds will go to the works that their provinces need and requested.
“The loan is received by the Nation, but the Norte Grande collective means that the works will not be defined according to the perspective in Buenos Aires, as has already happened,” they pointed out.
Speaking to the El Destape portal, De Pedro explained that his ministry carried out “a survey with all the provinces” to find out “what the productive profile is and what it wanted to diversify into.”
As leaders we have the responsibility and commitment to make a greater effort so that people have more money than inflation takes out of them, can live with dignity and recover their level of consumption, which is also to recover the role of SMEs in the market. internal. pic.twitter.com/aVl0L3cQe8
– Wado de Pedro ?? (@wadodecorrido) October 28, 2022
“We humbly put together a contribution for a federal development plan. When we traveled to Washington with the governors of the Norte Grande, we presented it to the World Bank and the IDB (…) there are 10 governors from different political forces asking for the same thing, and we presented a works plan to be financed in 15 years, 2 billion per year”, he commented.
Officials participating in the meetings commented that the World Bank authorities showed, from the first moment, a good reception of the project and highlighted the level of detail of the survey carried out by the Ministry of the Interior.
“That is why they agreed to work together on a plan that lasts over time and becomes a public policy that is continued by future governments,” added one of those present.
The meeting held at Casa Rosada was also attended by the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis; the governor of Chaco, Jorge Capitanich, who attended on behalf of the governors of the Norte Grande; the executive director for Argentina and the Southern Cone at the World Bank, Cecilia Nahón; the Secretary of Provinces, Bruno Ruggeri; and the national director of Financing with International Credit Organizations, Sebastián Rosales.
On behalf of the World Bank, the director for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, Jordán Schwartz; Operations Manager, Paul Procee; the leader of the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Program, Ana María Avilés; and Senior Operations Officer Emmy Yokoyama.
