During the 21st Conference of the Argentinian Industrial Union (UIA), José Manuel Salazar, Regional Director of ILO, considered that the zero poverty goal may be reached in Argentina through the creation and quality improvement of employment.

“This is a country filled with strengths and opportunities; the business and trade unions sectors are enthusiastic and have expectations with the new beginning that comes loaded of opportunities; clearly, there are complicated challenges; However, given president Macri words, productive development to promote employment is one of the key elements to achieve poverty zero”, said Salazar.

The topic of productive development aims to modify the productive structure in Latin America. Currently, the regional situation includes high levels of economic concentration, large innovation and productivity gaps, seven out of ten companies being informal and 50% of workers do not participate in social security.

“To reduce these gaps and achieve decent work, reinforcing labour inspections is not enough. The employment structure must be changed. Poverty zero is not possible without employment”, he defined, and he highlighted the need of development policies.

Policies are necessary to “have an influence on the speed and pattern of growth”, in order to “eliminate obstacles and to provide support. Policies must be combined with incentives, as we are speaking of private sector investments”, he explained.

One of the pillars of these policies are clusters (networks of companies of one same sector). “These are very convenient in a country like Argentina, which is very big as has regions that are specialized in certain activities”, stated Salazar.

The regional director also said that the insertion in value chains is important, which is a “challenge for every type of Company”, as “environmental and labour standards must be considered”.

“Another pillar for development is qualified human capital. Education and training must address technical and soft skills, such as punctuality, character, attitude, teamwork,” he said.

Salazar mentioned innovation as another key element, which “has been truly neglected” in Latin America in terms of investment, research and development. However, he pointed out that there is a proper environment and a business world that promotes entrepreneurship and business incubators.

ILO’s regional director also stated that the results of development policies can be seen with time and demand definitions from government, business, unions and society.

Source: Telam