Guillermo Ferraro He will be the Minister of Infrastructure of the government of Javier Milei, starting next December 10. He will be in charge of a mega-ministry with five key portfolios.
“It is a new Ministry. Within the rationalization of the State and the public sector is the consolidation of the ministries that are today Transportation, Public Works, Energy, Mining and Communications. Those would be the five main areas,” Ferraro said.
“The approach we have is that The State has to reduce its participation in the economy to give space to the private sector,” said the future minister, who announced that this new portfolio will aim to stimulate the private sector to invest.
“You have to think that the country is 20 years behind in infrastructure, since the 90s no new works have been done in this area and all estimates say that The investment that must be made to add value is almost 15 points of GDP, that it is impossible to sustain it from the public sector, which contributes 1%,” he said.
Ferraro confirmed that the Secretary of Energy will be Eduardo Rodríguez Chirilo, although he avoided confirming who will be in charge of the other portfolios.
“In Communications there is an extensive team, people who have held positions at ENACOM. These days I have to talk to the president, but in Communications, Public Works and Transportation they are going to be very proven and well-known people, suitable and trustworthy for the private sector. , with experience in the public sector,” he said.
The future minister announced that Milei is thinking about reforming the “concessions law.” “We must see if due to laziness, lack of will or incompetence, almost all the concessions such as railways, hydroelectric or road corridors, all expired in recent years and the administrations did not generate new conditions. Today they are in a vulnerable situation, no investments are made because they don’t know if the private sector is going to continue,” he assessed.
The businessman spoke about the works that are needed, and mentioned the road network that leads to the different ports. “There is a huge debt, a road network that starts with rural roads and go through the national routes and end at port accesses, such as Rosario or Quequén. It will be delivered to private companies, if there is a demand from usurers, there is an investment opportunity,” he remarked.
“We think about Argentina in a big way, that we must seriously build infrastructure for Vaca Muerta. Those who know this know that it needs water. Today there is no aqueduct that goes to Añelo, there is no train. Mining requires road infrastructure, a huge investment opportunity. We believe that a credible government is needed,” he said.
Regarding the waterway, he maintained that today cargo coming from Paraguay is being lost due to the amount of bureaucratic procedures. “Today they are going to Nueva Palmira, they are doing it in Uruguay, more nautical miles,” he said.
“Those of us who go to the suburbs see that the access works are from the military or Menem era. No new infrastructure works have been done. We believe that in the developed world we must create conditions for the private sector,” he said.
