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🇦🇷 Argentina /Economy & Trade

Four million versus 600,000: Argentine industrialists make the comparison with Italy at international forum

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Argentina has about 600,000 companies, compared with nearly 4 million in Italy, according to UIA president Martín Rapallini.
  • Rapallini said Argentina should strengthen industry’s role in economic and social development and help small firms grow into larger businesses.
  • He called for credit and industry-specific measures, including an industrial investment regime or a federal competitiveness pact, as the economy opens further.

Argentina’s industrialists have been left envious by a figure from Italy: nearly 4 million companies, compared with about 600,000 in Argentina. Martín Rapallini, president of the Argentine Industrial Union, cited the comparison at the 10th Italy-Latin America SME Forum.

Italy has less than one-eighth of Argentina’s land area but nearly seven times as many companies. Rapallini linked that difference to the place Italy gives industry in its development model, highlighting Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s description of Italy as “an industrial country.” He said Argentina should embrace the same definition as part of a broader view of industry’s economic and social role.

An industrial country.

· Antonio TajaniThe Italian foreign minister’s description of Italy was highlighted by Rapallini at the forum.

“Industry transforms and adds value. Raw materials arrive and we transform them into products. We create new value. And we also transform society. A factory creates citizenship and generates a middle class,” Rapallini said.

Industry transforms and adds value. Raw materials arrive and we transform them into products. We create new value. And we also transform society. A factory creates citizenship and generates a middle class.

· Martín RapalliniRapallini explained why he believes industry should have a central role in Argentina’s development model.

He argued that this understanding is established in Italy but still needs to take root in Argentina. Industry, he said, does more than create direct jobs: each industrial job generates three or four indirect jobs, with an even larger effect when workers’ incomes support shops and services in communities where factories operate.

Rapallini said Argentina’s challenge is not only to create new companies, but also to help small firms become medium-sized and medium-sized firms scale up. Credit remains one obstacle. “Things that are beyond dispute in Italy are still difficult for us in Argentina, as we try to create these instruments so that SMEs can grow,” he said.

Things that are beyond dispute in Italy are still difficult for us in Argentina, as we try to create these instruments so that SMEs can grow.

· Martín RapalliniHe identified access to credit and growth instruments as continuing challenges for Argentine small and medium-sized businesses.

He also renewed the industrial sector’s demand for conditions that would allow Argentine companies to compete in a more open economy. “What I have been proposing for some time is an industrial RIGI or a federal industrial competitiveness pact,” Rapallini said, referring to measures he wants to accompany economic opening.

What I have been proposing for some time is an industrial RIGI or a federal industrial competitiveness pact.

· Martín RapalliniHe called for industry-specific measures to support competitiveness as Argentina opens its economy.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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