June 16, 2024, 9:00 AM
June 16, 2024, 9:00 AM
A few days ago he published a small book in which he identifies the urban economic problems of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. With simple arithmetic, he shows that migration has decreased in intensity, the vehicular chaos will be solved when the fuel subsidy is eliminated and that “we have not had luck” with our rulers.
-Why did you title your latest work Metamorfosis?
I took it from the story by (Franz) Kafka, where Gregorio Samsa falls asleep like a human being and wakes up like a chulupi. That happened to Santa Cruz, we fell asleep as a town 50 years ago and woke up as a super city, full of problems, challenges; So that is the urban metamorphosis. And the end of Kafka’s metamorphosis is sad.
-What objective does Metamorphosis pursue?
I have been working on urban economic issues for years. That little book is the summary of several works that I did and that refer to problems that still remain unsolved, that are increasingly larger and more expensive, due to the lack of attention of the authorities, and the lack of training of the citizen.
Santa Cruz is the dirtiest city I know, it’s terrible. And it is not a problem for the rich or the poor, because you can see people throwing a diaper out of a Land Cuiser (van), for example. Then I put old unsolvable problems into context.
If we really want to remain competitive, Bolivia’s locomotive, we have to fix the urban issue more or less urgently. Issues such as (vehicular) congestion, the polycentricity of the city, the costs of having a large city, which I define with one word in English, sprawl, a city as big as the North American ones, where you can only get around by car.
In Santa Cruz you cannot ride a bicycle, it is not walkable on foot, in any sense. We have to overcome those things, because there are other cities that are doing that work and doing it well.
-What consequences does this have for the citizen and for the authorities?
The POA is the main planning instrument for the municipal government’s works, but in a more or less dynamic market economy, like that of Santa Cruz, based on agribusiness, the municipal works would only have to be a part.
The problems of the old town are increasing because the authorities do not understand it, some want tiles and others want asphalt. But traffic congestion is what generates the greatest social cost to citizens, about 40 minutes a day which means 1.5 dollars per day, equivalent to 330 dollars per year, which is equivalent to 8.25% of GDP per capita.
And the cause of the traffic congestion in Santa Cruz is because there was a very bad policy called subsidy (for fuel), with cheap gasoline that people do not even turn off the engine (of their vehicle) when they wait 10 or 15 minutes. for their children to leave school.
60% of gasoline is spent in Santa Cruz. The grant has greatly benefited our department.
-In your book you say that migration has slowed down a bit. Does this have benefits?
Here, almost half of the population is from outside and we still live together with a certain harmony and rationality. That is more due to its people than to the authorities. From 2001 to 2022 the curve has grown, but at a rate that tends to plateau at 2%, but I do not know the causes.
I may have some preliminary ideas, but it seems interesting because I believe that Santa Cruz is no longer enough for as many people to come and do well as before. But if they don’t come, the market stagnates and we lose a little dynamism. But we should also see the other side: there is no one else to come; All the people from La Paz, Orureños or Chuquisaqueños who had to come have come. Before, labor came and now professionals and businessmen arrive,
-What should be done to change these problems in the city of Santa Cruz?
We need a little luck with the authorities. A change where we are as free to invest as Paraguayans, paying such low taxes, not maintaining such a large bureaucracy of more than half a million public employees, is crazy.
I believe that Santa Cruz does have the economic dynamism, it has the business and human capital to continue growing; It is a resilient city, but we need a little luck like other countries have had, an important change in the direction of the macroeconomic cycle that allows, in six or seven years, to be better than we are now.
