President Javier Milei spoke this Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference that took place in Los Angeles, United States. In front of an audience of businessmen and economists of the most influential in the world, he called for them to bet on Argentina and to transform it into “the Rome of the 21st century” and take advantage of investment opportunities because the country “it has all the conditions to be the new mecca of the West”.
In his speech, which lasted approximately 35 minutes, Javier Milei summarized his defense of the free market, criticized the political class and invited global investors to bet on Argentina.
To the businessmen, whom he defined as “human progress incarnate” and “the heroes of history,” Milei said that “if you believe as I do in the superiority of free enterprise capitalism, in which the West is headed to a slow but sure decline, in which merit, ambition, freedom, innovation and optimism are essential values, I want to invite you to bet on Argentina.”
And then he asked them: “Help me make Argentina the new Rome of the 21st Century, to make Argentina a land of opportunities for all those who are willing to inhabit our soil.”
In his speech he also recalled what he said in his presentation at the Davos Forum last January, “which apparently was widely commented on, is that the West is in danger.” “It is in danger because its leaders long ago distanced themselves from the ideas of freedom, ideas that made the West the most important civilizing feat in human history,” Milei insisted.
For this reason, he complained that “instead of defending the ideas that generated the prosperity that everyone here enjoys, they listen to siren songs that lead inexorably to socialism and consequently to poverty.”
“For us, the only task of the State is to protect the life, freedom and property of Argentines, so that each one can be the architect of their own destiny. It is a vision similar to that held by all the prosperous countries of the West in the great moments in its history. The task of the State is not to put invented money in people’s pockets,” he said.
He also spoke about his government management. He said that “in the first five months of the government, a reform program seven times larger than the State Reform of President Carlos Menem in the early 1990s was promoted, the last great liberal project that Argentina had.”
He also maintained that despite the clear minority that La Libertad Avanza has in both chambers of Congress, progress was made in the country because “Argentine society demands a profound and urgent change of course to once again embrace the ideas of freedom.”
And he assured that “from the first day we announced that with us the deficit would end and, consequently, the monetary issue and inflation would end. The establishment did not want to give us credit and many things were said. That we should make one more adjustment of one point of GDP was impossible, that having zero deficit in the first year was impossible. It was said that a low rate policy would not serve to reduce inflation. But we have defied these forecasts and we are meeting our objectives.
Parallel meetings
Before and after his speech, Milei held a series of meetings with different personalities in which he was accompanied by his sister and Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, and the Argentine ambassador to the United States, Gerardo Werthein.
The first of the meetings that he reported on through his social networks was with the creator of the event’s organizing entity, Mike Milken, a North American market manager found guilty of fraud in a case of insider trading.
Then, the Argentine president had his long-awaited second meeting with the South African magnate Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, Space X, Starlink and the social network “my friend Elon Musk for setting foot on Mars, because we understand that space exploration lives up to our destiny as an exploring species, too big to be confined to this planet.”
The meeting was also held with the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, who gave him a shirt and a ball with the Argentine president’s name engraved on it. Before his speech, and continuing with the sports agenda, Milei received Guillermo Barros Schelotto, former player and former coach of Boca Juniors.
In parallel and with their own agenda, the Chief of Staff, Nicolás Posse, and the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, held meetings to highlight the investment opportunities that the country offers under the libertarian administration to business executives, including , Citibank, IBM, Chevron, Blackstone, Carlyle, Fortress, and Eldrige.
