Within the framework of the Interdisciplinary Dialogue Table for the Development of the Trunk Waterway, the Minister of Productive Development of Santa Fe, Gustavo Puccini, took part in the first day together with more than 60 other participants from the public and private sectors to set out the province's position in view of the start of the process towards a new tender for the Trunk Waterway (VNT).
Puccini, the only participating Minister, highlighted the work that Maximiliano Pullaro's administration has been carrying out since the National Government announced the tender to provide the key points that should be included in the tender to favour the development of the waterway, among them the creation of a monitoring body for the concession, in which the provinces involved participate.
"The concession of the waterway is a new opportunity to plan the development of the province and the country in the medium and long term," Puccini remarked and then indicated that "from day one we have accompanied the announcement of the tender as we do with other measures that have to do with the efficiency of the state, fiscal balance, reducing spending and taking care of the surplus. In our case, all the savings will go to productive infrastructure and public works because we understand that this is the way we are going to be more competitive.
Invited by Iñaki Arreseygor, executive director of the National Agency of Ports and Navigation (ANPyN), the Minister recalled that a document was presented months ago to the national government with 14 points addressing technical issues that favour the development of the waterway, three of which had not been taken into account in the previous tender and the provincial government seeks to include them in the new tender.
Puccini referred to the draft between Timbúes and the port of Santa Fe, the creation of a body to monitor the concession, in which the provinces participate, and also the reduction of the concession period. In this respect, he indicated that "we accompany the Nation in this and we continue to demand the national routes and the regulations that we are working on in the case of the cabotage law. We did it with the enabling of the circulation of bicycles on provincial routes, and with the deregulation of Exporta Simple that enabled us to Nation".
He also added that "in the waterway tender we are interested in revising the draft from Timbúes upwards. As a government we are working on this infrastructure, such as the third lane of the Rosario - Santa Fe motorway, the Camino de la Cremería, the extension of Route 21, and we have a package of works that we are going to carry out with the CAF (Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean) credit within the framework of the Development Plan for the Logistics Competitiveness of the Agro-exporting Pole, but we need the Nation to assume its commitment and improve the infrastructure of the National Routes or cede them to the province to manage them".
What's next
The Minister, on the other hand, stressed the importance of the call for dialogue in view of the preparation of the new specifications, and highlighted the decision of the Agency to take the dialogue tables to other provinces indicating that "it will probably be our turn to host the next meeting and it seems to us a wise decision since Santa Fe has more than 850 km of coastline on the Paraná River, more than 25 private and public port terminals, and 85% of grain exports leave through the ports of the province, being the main source of foreign exchange for the Republic of Argentina. But we all have to be represented here, both the Central Region and the Litoral Region, and work for the total development of the waterway to Paraguay".
Attendees
Minister Puccini was joined by the Secretary of Transport and Logistics, Monica Alvarado; the Undersecretary Jorge Henn; the presidents of the port authorities of Santa Fe, Daniel Cura, and Villa Constitucion, Hernan Salemi. The private sector was represented by representatives of the Rosario Stock Exchange, the Chamber of Exporters of the Argentine Republic, the Chamber of Importers of the Argentine Republic, the Argentine Industrial Union, the Chamber of Oil Industry, the Chamber of Private Ports, the Chamber of Pilotage, as well as delegates from the coastal provinces of the Waterway and provincial public port authorities.
