‘If Jeff Bezos were Argentine, Amazon would surely not exist’, imagined a renowned Spanish economist

Xavier Sala I Martín spoke at the 58th IDEA Colloquium calling for long-term policies so that Argentina does not continue to lose opportunities.

The second day of the 58th IDEA Colloquium opened this Thursday with a presentation via Zoom by a renowned Spanish economist, Xavier Sala I Martín, who referred to the potential of Argentina in relation to its insertion in the world, making a strong criticism of the role of the State before the business sector and from the political class for not being able to agree on a common medium- and long-term strategy.

“Argentina has no vision of the country. It must stop being a possible emergent to become an emergent once and for all. That is the dream in which everyone must agree,” said the expert.

One of the most forceful phrases of Sala I Martín was when, without citing a specific case but throwing the national government to the test, he stated: “When governments do things they don’t know, like managing businesses, things end badly.”

In an exhibition in which he spoke of the international context, of the opportunities that the world offers in the face of the post-pandemic, Sala I Martín said that “if Argentina had to follow what the world is proposing today, it should move politically towards right, liberalize, especially for being as far to the left as it is“.

He also referred to what the bases have to be established by a country in order to move towards a productive economy. “There can be no corruption, not an obsessive regulation and the financial markets must be given way,” he said. And he wondered, along these lines: “What industry is going to succeed in Argentina, what entrepreneurs are going to continue investing in the country if one day a government says ‘we are going to invest in plastic, and the next after comes and says ‘let’s invest in soybeans'”.

Continuing with his critical stance towards the State, he reflected: “Governments do not have the determination that businessmen doAnd neither are the incentives. When they get into managing companies and do things they don’t know how to do, things end badly.”

The economist also imagined what would have happened if Jeff Bezos, the successful founder of Amazon, had been born in Argentina. “Surely Amazon would not exist, because in the ’90s, when it began to develop, Argentina was lagging behind, with the financial sector dominated by banks that were going bankrupt. The powerful had said: selling online is unfair competition, we must punish These guysprevent this from happening“.

Finally, he made a World Cup allusion in relation to what Argentina has to expect from the world. “If governments do their homework and manage to lay the foundations for the economy to be productive and make this work, then companies will be able to take advantage of the great opportunities in the world. But if this does not happen, the world will not play for Argentina, they are also going to lose this World Cup.”

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‘If Jeff Bezos were Argentine, Amazon would surely not exist’, imagined a renowned Spanish economist