A few hours before the vote on the Base Law project promoted by the Government of Javier Milei, the national representative for San Juan, Walberto Allende supported the Large Investment Regime (RIGI), but spoke out against the rest of the regulation.
The legislator explained that he supports the creation of the RIGI, which he considered key to promoting mining activity in San Juan, but clarified that he will be forced to vote against it. “Last session, when we discussed the basic law, we supported the RIGI and rejected the rest of the chapters,” explained Allende, who added that since in this session the entire text will be voted on as a whole and not by chapters, he will not be able to give his approval for the RIGI, “as we would have wanted.”
The legislator assured that the provinces considered mining know the enormous potential that this economic activity has. The man from San Juan assured that until a few years ago he avoided talking about mining, but with the passage of time it was given a more central place.
Allende said that at this moment Argentina has 192 projects in different stages, only 22 in production, but why is foreign investment important? Only six projects are carried out with local funds. He added that Canada contributes 35 projects to the activity, Australia 13. The deputy then added that in San Juan there are 29 projects and two mines in production and added that of these 29 projects, only one started recently, it belongs to the América group and is in its initial stage.
The man from San Juan assured that this shows the need for foreign investments that mining needs to develop, he assured that in San Juan there has been an increase in unemployment and predicted that if this continues there will be a migration of inhabitants from the provinces to Buenos Aires .
“If we do not develop mining we are going to return to the San Juan of 500,000 inhabitants,” Allende assured.
Towards the end of his speech, the legislator said that the slowdown in public works is seriously affecting the provinces and stressed that in San Juan the provincial government and the mayors have been making efforts to contain the situation. He then added that the Ley Bases will contribute to job insecurity, so he will not support the law in general.
