Brazil, main destination of the province’s exports, buying 42% of its foreign sales
The landlocked Province of Córdoba is looking forward to gaining access to the world through a channel of regional integration, the Paraná-Paraguay waterway, says Jorge Lawson, the province’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Mining. “In Córdoba we have a strong spirit of integration within the central region of which we feel part, because the world is dominated by regions, but also 42 percent of all Córdoba’s exports go to Brazil,” he told a port forum held in late September by the ENAPRO Rosario Port Authority.
“Brazil is Córdoba’s main strategic partner — and it should also be of Argentina. We must strengthen Mercosur which is now going through a difficult cycle.
“However, the bloc is solid because it not only depends on political decisions but on business and enterprises, and that makes it have a long life.‘
In a written interview with the Herald the Minister elaborated on his speech at the ENAPRO forum.
“We have recently visited the governor of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul to see what possibilities we have to use the waterway to get to Brazil and see how Brazil is preparing to connect with the entire region via the waterway. They are connecting the area with railways and roads, building ports. There we saw that we have to concentrate our efforts on the waterway. But how do we get there?
‘BI-TRAINS’
“We have sent the provincial legislature a bill to promote the use of bi-trenes in the province, only on motorways.
The bi-trenes are trucks which allow loads of up to 70 tonnes versus the maximum 30 tonnes allowed by the current legislation, and which because of its large number of axes have a better weight distribution and damage roads 57 percent less.
“We have been discussing this with the lieutenant-governor of Santa Fe, and with Santa Fe legislators, to see whether they can pass a similar law.”
ROADS AT HOME, PORT AREAS IN SANTA FE
In October Córdoba signed an agreement with the Stock Exchange of Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Port Authority (EAPSF ) whereby the EAPSF will allow Córdoba to have port areas for the handling of cargo coming from or going to Córdoba and its area of influence, and Córdoba will have a director on the board of the EAPSF. Under a Santa Fe decree the province of Entre Ríos may also have a member on the board.
“The agreement means that our companies can consolidate cargo there and that in the future we will be able to attract investments. With that aim, we are also fostering the construction of highways in Córdoba, working to recover the railway system like the one linking Deán Funes to Santa Fe, and we are working hard to have international connectivity.
“Today we have a daily flight to Sao Paulo, we have ways out through Santiago de Chile and Lima, naturally through Ezeiza, and are in talks to establish a direct flight from Córdoba to Madrid,” said Lawson .
“Why is the waterway so crucial for us? Because we in Córdoba have a production model which has to do with the agri-business, metal-working, tourism and software sectors that need access to the world. We have launched the 2025 business plan.
“We created a new industrial park programme. In Córdoba there are 42 industrial parks. We are trying to promote the settlement of industries. In a year and a half we have managed to attract investments of more than US$1 billion from companies which have settled in the province.‘
OIL
“Furthermore, Córdoba will be a major player in the oil business. In the new world order Argentina is number 3 in reserves of shale oil and shale gas. We speak of Vaca Muerta but there is another basin stretching from northern Córdoba and going into Paraguay and Brazil. We have decided to become an industry which caters to the two large basins, because we have a metal-working industry, 10 universities and know-how and all you need to establish an industry to supply the oil sector.”
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
“In Córdoba there are 427 municipalities or communes and to every mayor coming to ask us:Why don’t you settle a company in my town? we reply that there is not enough businesses for everyone, that the business must be generated, and that mayors have to discuss with existing companies what local supply chain can be created there. This is not an import substitution programme but a local development plan within which we are a strategic partner. We detect opportunities in each village. We call courageous people to put forward a business plan to see if some project is sustainable and, if so, we are ready to finance what it takes to install the company. We grant scholarships, for example, for the top 2,000 high school students each year — today 4,500 scholarships — to pursue careers which have to do with our production matrix and we pay them 2,000 pesos per month until they get their degree.‘
Lawson said that Córdoba was launching a guarantee fund to finance small and medium-sized (Pymes) companies.
“There are many Pymes which cannot get a loan because they cannot afford to provide a guarantee. This fund will analyze projects and if they give us the assurance that it will be sustainabl,e we will be the guarantee for banks to lend them money.”
EXPLORING BRAZIL
“We created the Pro-Córdoba Agency — under the orbit of this ministry — which is organizing almost 100 missions per year. We have created in Brazil a business centre so our companies can go to Sao Paulo and find someone who will lend them a hand.
“The agency is organizing missions into Brazil. In Brazil there are 78 Río Cuartos (155,000 residents) or 56 Villa Marías (85,000 residents), towns that usually trade missions do not explore as all of them go to Sao Paulo, Río de Janeiro or other large cities. And in small towns there are great opportunities. We are also organizing many missions to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which is a channel that we will have to explore via the waterway.”
THE WATERWAY
Within the integration process of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, their leaders should sit at a table, and analyze and solve the distortions affecting the rivers. Some of the distortions have to do with a minimum crew necessary to operate a vessel in each country, something that affects costs, and also the maximum number of ports at which a ship of the other country can call,” the minister said.
“Let us solve these distortions to develop as friends and partners instead of seeing how to compete among ourselves. The train gauges of Brazil and Argentina were different. Wider in Brazil, narrower in Argentina, because both countries were afraid of being invaded by the other. That period is over.”
buenosairesherald.com