The chief of staff, Juan Manzur, assured this Thursday that in the Government “there is a political decision and a vocation to pay” the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the eve of an expiration of US $ 731 million with the multilateral credit organization.
Manzur made statements at a ceremony held in the Buenos Aires town of Escobar, in which the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis, maintained that the negotiation with the IMF “it will not stop the growth of Argentina”.
The statements by Manzur and Katopodis come in the midst of the Government’s efforts with the international organization to renegotiate the agreement signed in June 2018 in the Presidency of Mauricio Macri and which consisted of a loan of about US $ 55,000 million, the largest that the IMF has granted to a member country.
A joy to visit Escobar with concrete solutions for its people. With the Minister of Public Works @gkatopodis Y @ArielSujarchuk We inaugurated the paving of Los Tulipanes street and the widening of Provincial Route 25, with an investment of $1,161 million. pic.twitter.com/6n0Y0HwrDU
– Juan Manzur (@JuanManzurOK) January 27, 2022
At the end of the road works inauguration ceremony in Escobar, Manzur told journalists that the government “is politically determined and willing to pay” the IMF.
“We are going through important hours, carrying out a negotiation that we do not want to do, but that we do anyway due to the irresponsibility of others,” Katopodis said in this regard.
In addition to Manzur and Katopodis, the event was attended by the mayor of Escobar on leave and president of the National Entity for the Control and Management of the Waterway, Ariel Sujarchuk; the interim communal chief, Alberto Ramil, and the province’s Minister of Infrastructure and Public Services, Leonardo Nardini.
“We are going through important hours, carrying out a negotiation that we do not want to do, but that we do anyway due to the irresponsibility of others”Gabriel Katopodis
In his address, the Minister of Public Works lambasted both the IMF and the opposition of Together for Changein particular due to the agreement reached with the agency in June 2018.
“What the IMF wants us to do, the previous government already did”sentenced the official, who assured that “in the name of these negotiations many times salaries were reduced, public companies such as Airlines were sold and pensions were lowered.”
In the same sense, he recalled the cuts in investments in public works that these adjustments implied, and differentiated the Government of President Alberto Fernández from the negotiations of other times.
“There is a clear and firm government decision: public works in Argentina are not stopped or negotiated”he stressed, while maintaining that this is “a guaranteed commitment with or without a Budget, with a responsible opposition or that does not approve the laws.”
We inaugurate with @JuanManzurOK Y @ArielSujarchuk the widening of Route 25 and the paving of Los Tulipanes, works for the development of #escobar.
in Argentina of @alferdez Y @CFKArgentina Public Works are not stopped or negotiated. We will fulfill every commitment. pic.twitter.com/8VUlQIp3KH
— Gabriel Katopodis (@gkatopodis) January 27, 2022
Katopodis advocated “recovering the country project that was abandoned in the four years of macrismo and that had to be postponed with the pandemic,” and pointed out that “there is not a second to lose” in following that path.
For his part, in a more conciliatory tone, Manzur delivered a brief speech in which he indicated that in the Government “we are not here to fight with anyone but to respond to the demands of the people.”
In this regard, he assured that “we are going to be fine” and that “the great challenge is that each Argentine has a job.”
