The National Society of Industries (SNI) considers that waiting three years to reach the country’s debt ceiling is unfeasible for an economy that needs to be reactivated as soon as possible through an injection of public spending. Its owner, Jesús Salazar Nishi, also hopes for more efficient financial support for microentrepreneurs.
-What grade do we give to the MEF?
-Taking out 2020, Peru did not have a negative GDP for 25 years. It means that we have gone back a lot, a lost year as a country. The number of Peruvians in poverty has increased by more than 1 million, we are almost approaching 30%. Faced with this situation, hearing 2% growth forecasts generates an immediate response from our union, because we cannot resign ourselves to that. Accepting to grow 2% in 2024 is accepting that poverty will continue to grow.
-How much poverty?
-We would be closing 2024 with 31.5% poverty. Are we going to resign ourselves to this almost zero growth? If we break it down, of that 2%, at least 1.5% is a rebound, and the dynamism for this year would be barely 0.5%, that is, Peru is not going to grow. We say that we can, but if we add 3% to that 1.5% rebound, it can normally grow to reach 4% or 4.5%.
-What to do in that case?
-First, we must improve management effectiveness. Without it we are bad. It is necessary to demand that the National Infrastructure Authority (Anin) immediately begin to operate and become the technical and strategic body that defines the closing of these gaps.
-But we also need to unblock what is paralyzed.
-Yeah. It is not about looking ahead and abandoning S/23,000 million in projects stopped for different reasons, many of them due to corruption or poorly done files. In the end, the population is harmed. The Comptroller’s Office does a good job of detecting corruption problems. Where we need to work is to find a solution, I don’t think the formula is to stop the works and let the righteous sleep. They must go through a judicial stage to punish the corrupt, but the work must continue and have its own dynamic with new officials, even.
-What other measures?
-A third measure involves energizing current projects. There are more than US$50 billion in mining projects and, if we talk about the most immediate ones (ratified by Minem in 2023), we are talking about US$13 billion. It is necessary to accompany them and promote the issue of investments; Regarding the issue of paperwork, I believe that, immediately, we must find a way out.
-But they also ask to increase the public debt with an “extraordinary development fund.”
-SNI does not ask that Peru go into more debt, we ask that it grow. One of the tools is to resort to debt without escaping the legal framework. Our Multiannual Macroeconomic Framework (MMM) considers that Peru can borrow up to 38% of its GDP in the next three years, about S/50,000 million. Why should we wait to reach that level, when 2024 has to be a turning point? We cannot have a bad or mediocre year again.
-And what assures us that it does not lead to more corruption?
-We propose a high commissioner who represents the private sector – he cannot come from the public – who is honest and who has demonstrated good management in conducting this policy. Not so that he executes, but rather a kind of tsar who directs the strategy and ensures that we close the gaps.
-Have they already presented the document?
-We are going to have a meeting with Prime Minister Otárola this Wednesday. Together with other unions, we have been invited by the PCM to talk about concrete measures to energize. They are reasonable measures, perhaps some of them disruptive.
-Did Impulse not measure up?
-Impulso MyPerú started with S/5,000 million and rose to S/15,000 million. From what we have been able to discuss with our partners, the impact was not what was expected. Much of that fund has gone to pay debts and did not reach new companies, but rather clients with whom the banks had previous accounts.
-You. They themselves supported him.
-The idea is good, but we need to intervene more with the financial agents, see how it is being distributed and what effects it has had. Today we should see other ratios, not close at 0.5%. I recognize the MEF’s effort in raising the fund, but efficiency is needed when implementing it.
Source: Larepublica
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