The former motonautical champion and former Argentine vice president Daniel Scioli took the oath of office on Wednesday as the new Minister of Productive Development of Argentina, replacing Matías Kulfas, dismissed from office after the outbreak of a scandal within the Government over the tender for a new gas pipeline .
“I want to thank you, Daniel, because when I called you, you were there. With Daniel we have a friendship of many years. Thank you, seriously, for coming to take charge at this time,” said Argentine President Alberto Fernández, when Scioli was sworn in.
On June 5, Fernández offered Scioli to replace Matías Kulfas as head of the Ministry of Productive Development, a key portfolio within the economic area and which has important activities such as industry and mining under its orbit.
A day earlier, the head of state had asked Kulfas to resign amid renewed tensions within the ruling coalition in Argentina between the sector aligned with the vice president, Cristina Fernández, and officials close to the president.
Kulfas had questioned the actions of officials close to the vice president regarding the tender for a new gas pipeline to transport the gas extracted from the Vaca Muerta formation.
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Scioli’s appointment was well received by the local business sector, at a time of strong challenges for the Argentine economy, which is growing but at a much slower rate than that achieved in 2021.
The country faces serious macroeconomic imbalances, including very high inflation, financing problems and restrictions on access to foreign exchange that affect many productive sectors.
Daniel Osvaldo Scioli, born in 1957, competed in power boating between 1986 and 1998. He also developed as a businessman in the electrical appliance sector.
He jumped into politics in 1997 and since then he has held legislative and executive positions, always as a leader of Peronism.
Among his most prominent positions, he was vice president of the country, in the Presidency of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), and governor of the province of Buenos Aires (2007-2015).
Since June 2020, he has served as ambassador to Brazil, a key country for Argentine foreign policy since it is its main trading partner.
RECOGNITION TO KULFAS
At Wednesday’s event, Fernández was very concerned about the effects of the war in Ukraine “of a global scope” and stated that Argentina “has managed to go through the two and a half years of the pandemic in a really significant way”, managing to protect the most vulnerable sectors.
“We recovered very well, we recovered industrial activity, we recovered the economy, we grew 10.3% in 2021. Matías Kulfas has a hand in many of these results and I want to thank him for all the effort and commitment,” said Fernández.
The president called for “unity” to “face the time to come”, bearing in mind the international situation and knowing that, as a consequence of this scenario, there will be aspects that the Government will not be able to handle.
