Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Friday, December 13, 2019

The objective of developing Argentina 4.0 in the framework of digital social justice

The new Government's strategies to accelerate the country's entry into the knowledge economy.

An ideal plan for the new management of President Alberto Fernández is that each area of ??the government adopt measures to promote the new production and work models generated by digitalization. The proposal is transversal and clearly seeks to achieve results in the medium term: however, the start is now, in parallel to the urgent decisions demanded by the social and economic emergency.

The coordination of the plan will be under the orbit of the brand new Secretariat for Strategic Affairs for Development, with ministerial rank and by Gustavo Béliz. Its focus will be on transforming structures to propel the country towards the demands of a world that evolves towards new geopolitical and economic-social challenges. The functions are clearly defined by the Law on Ministries published on December 11 in the Official Gazette: “That in order to assist the President of the Nation in the definition of strategic priorities that are reflected in projects with international financing to have tools at the service of productive, social and knowledge economy development, as well as understanding participation in international organizations, and thus it is appropriate to create the Secretariat for Strategic Affairs ”.

In the September issue of Convergencia Telemática, just two weeks after the PASO, it was predicted that the digital economy would be an axis of Alberto Fernández's plans, taking as reference the Law for the Promotion of the Knowledge Economy, which will not only serve to maintain and grow the “manufacturing” of soft and application of Artificial Intelligence or IoT developments, but to associate that segment of production with all possible sectors of the economy. In this regard, it is worth recalling one of President Fernàndez's messages addressed to union leaders when visiting the CGT, when he suggested that the Azopardo building should become a center of technological education for workers.

In principle, Strategic Affairs for Development will have two secretariats: Knowledge Development and International Development Relations. The first will work on the evolution of productive models and technology, and the other would handle the relationship with multilateral credit agencies, with the exception of the IMF, which is left to the Minister of Finance. It will then have the link with entities such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Andean Development Corporation and other entities: they have financing lines for specific projects and this unit would monitor the application of the funds.

The idea of ??the portfolio is to add value to primary products by encouraging the development of technological solutions, particularly in three sectors where Argentina has competitive advantages: agriculture, mining and energy. In the latter case, with the hopes placed in Vaca Muerta.

However, this goal requires the formation of human resources on the one hand and, in the case of a justicialist government, apply corrections in the legal scaffolding of labor rights. One of the tools that the new management will have will be the Law for the Promotion of the Knowledge Economy, approved this year by Congress and recently regulated by the outgoing Executive. The tax incentives that the Law contains, subject to which part of the profit of the technological companies is turned to R&D or professional training, can constitute an interesting vein to take advantage of professional talent in promoting more innovation. It is estimated that the new regime until 2029 will be able to create up to 200,000 jobs in the next ten years

Beliz’s role

"A friend in the picture" was the title of a square of the edition in Convergencia Telemática of September that mentioned Beliz as a fundamental character in the new architecture. Although the Strategic Affairs for Development activity also includes the modernization of the State, the plans that Béliz will lead go much further. "You have to be aware that the productive model changed," he said at a conference when he emerged in 2019 and was still an official at the IDB. It was from that position and at that stage that he deepened his look on the impact of new technologies on economic development.

In the last week of November, Béliz met with Trade unionists and called to observe that the digital divide is not only the inability to access connectivity: the challenge is to face the social and economic effects of the massification of new production models.

Another clue to interpret what will be the searches of the new Government and, especially, of the new secretary, is in these words: “The Fourth Industrial Revolution, to sum up, requires a Fourth Institutional Revolution, where Smart States 4.0 are able to regulate new realities without suffocating innovation processes; expand and customize policies based on big data without abandoning comprehensive looks through a better qualification of their human resources,” said Béliz.

His duties, depending directly on the President, will involve him throughout the administration, transversely as stated, since the mission is to plan strategies and State policies. One of its main allies will be Matías Kulfas, Ministry of Productive Development, whose portfolio will have a Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade with three undersecretaries coordinated by economist Ariel Schale, until now director of the ProTejer Foundation. There will be a special area to implement the Law of Promotion of the Knowledge Economy. In addition, that kind of superministerium that will be Béliz's portfolio would be incumbent on the areas of education, work, agriculture, mining, energy, industry, etc., because, it is worth reiterating, there are new production models and “as Peronists,” recently said Béliz - we have to think about digital social justice.”

The Cordoba case

The Córdoba Technology Cluster is an example of an articulator between the technological sector and the social and institutional productive sectors, and it can be taken as a practical case and already in force of the transversality proposed by the management of Alberto Fernández. Created in 2001, it brings together more than 300 companies that betray so that the ICT sector, and its growth, translate into social economic impact in the province. An important interaction has been carried out with the automotive and agricultural sectors, both of central importance in the Mediterranean province. The virtuous circle is complemented by the participation of universities.

Diego Casali, president of the Córdoba Technology Cluster, specified some of the activities in pursuit of this strategy: training and linking activities between the tech sector and the other productive verticals; the Sector Digital Transformation Units program, which in 2019 sought to strengthen intersectoral associativity; and the CLIP initiative, faced together with the Government of Córdoba and universities is aimed at labor insertion and the training of human resources for the sector.

Cluster companies employ 15.000 people; generated in exports US$ 144 million and invoiced around US$ 576 million during 2019. The Law of Knowledge Economy Promotion is one of the main bets for the immediate future: in Córdoba there are about 80 companies currently covered by the software regime, and the expectation is that this amount will double in 2020 under the new regime.

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