MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scioli sworn in as Argentina's Minister of Productive Development

“The inflation problem today is global,” Scioli stressed

Former Vice President Daniel Scioli was sworn in Wednesday as Argentina's new Minister of Productive Development, following the dismissal of Matías Kulfas earlier this month. Before his new appointment, Scioli was Argentina's Ambassador to Brasilia.

“We aim at boosting all the productive development of Argentina in a federal sense,” said Scioli in a radio interview after taking his oath of office. The 2015 losing presidential candidate arrived in the early hours of Monday from Brasilia.

President Alberto Fernández insisted that the ruling Frente de Todos “needs the maximum unity” and affirmed that the Government requires the “maximum effort of each Argentine” in a scenario that will be conditioned by the “international situation.”

“In order for all this to be possible, no one is surplus, we are all needed,” Fernández stressed.

Scioli announced he would meet with Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof “to define priorities and an agenda to advance on the national industry that we are now going to boost nationwide.”

“I met with Economy Minister Martín Guzmán, and Central Bank Chief Miguel Pesce, and what we are talking about is to responsibly address the priorities and avoid speculative maneuvers and guarantee the necessary dollars to grow,” the former Governor of Buenos Aires also pointed out.

Scioli also said he would focus on electromobility and the manufacture of auto parts, because that is what “the future comes with.”

“The intention is to strengthen the market with Brazil, to have a very strong action, in fact in the month of July we have an important event with the province of Entre Ríos, the relations I have sown, the links with governors, business entities, have to serve to further strengthen the trade relationship”, he added.

“All of us who are part of the Frente de Todos have a high sense of responsibility, we cannot lose sight of the fact that in 2019 the people told us: Unite, we cannot stand anymore with a government of adjustment, of the dismantling of the productive apparatus,” Scioli told reporters at Casa Rosada.

“What it is about now is to move the country forward, the diversity of opinions, the ability to find the synthesis that the President has to continue leading the destinies of the country with a key axis in production, in work, in social containment as was the IFE. We must not lose sight of the fact that shortly after the beginning of the Government came the pandemic, the negotiation with the International Monetary Fund, and then everything that the impact of the war meant. There are indicators of progress, the drop in unemployment, the industrial recovery, also understanding that the inflation problem today is global,” he insisted.

“In no way did I come to sign up for the presidential race,” Scioli also said Wednesday in a TV interview after speculations spread about his possible presidential aspirations for 2023.