Perfil (Sabado)

Government hands control of Paraná-paraguay waterway to port agency

Alberto Fernández administra­tion nationalis­es management of the Hidrovía Paraná-paraguay waterway by decree for 12 months.

- – TIMES/NA/PERFIL

Argentina’s government has nationalis­ed the administra­tion of the Hidrovía Paranápara­guay waterway by decree, granting control to the general port administra­tion agency.

The decision, formalised last Thursday via Decree 427/2021, assigns the tasks of the hands control of the river network’s maintenanc­e (including dredging) to the Administra­ción General de Puertos (AGP) port authority for at least 12 months until a long-term internatio­nal concession is awarded.

“The Ports Administra­tion will enter into the necessary contracts to guarantee navigabili­ty,” the decree said.

The AGP administra­tion extends for some 3,500 kilometres to the Paraná river’s outlet into the River Plate estuary downstream. The waterway is a key route for exports, accounting for 80 to 85 percent of Argentine foreign trade.

Thursday’s decree brings to an end a quarter-century of administra­tion by the Belgian dredging company Jan de Nul andits local part ne rE mepa since 1995, onc et he90-d ay rollo ver ruledby re sol u ti on 129/2021 last April expires.

Transport Minister Alexis Guerrera, who replaced Mario Meoni upon the latter’s road accident death last April, justified the nationalis­ation by saying that it allowed the government “sufficient time to prepare a major tender and thus guarantee navigabili­ty.”

Guerrera further assured that “the active participat­ion of the provinces via the Federal Hidrovía Council” formed part of the new regime, which would also incorporat­e the universiti­es and the Environmen­t Ministry, which will undertake a study analysing how to make the waterway navigable for the next 15 years.

The government is further evaluating placing all the country’s waterways under the control of a new Transport Ministry agency, said the official.

According to the decree, the Transport Ministry will be contractin­g the dredging services over the next year before launching a national and internatio­nal tender for longer-term services. The Ministry is expected to outsource dredging to specialise­d private companies.

The decree places the collection of all waterway tolls in government hands, while assuring a state presence in the Hidrovía’s infrastruc­ture.

The AGP is headed by trustee José Beni, a native of Santa

Cruz long close to the Kirchner family and a member of the Instituto Patria think tank.

The farming sector was quick to react to the state move into the outlet for over 80 percent of their exports with former Agricultur­e Minister Luis Miguel Etcheveher­e describing its main motive as “to steal the money” in the form of waterway tolls totalling US$300 million, something which he considered to be typical of “a gang of thieves.”

Etcheveher­e said that dozens of world-class dredging companies around the world who would show up in Argentina if there were a “transparen­t” tender, describing the new developmen­t as “a tragedy for Argentine exports.”

Gustavo Idigoras, head of CIARA-CEC grain exporters chamber, told a trade outlet

Thursday that tolls should be collected by private firms and not the state, in order to ensure funds are not moved around among government bodies and agencies.

Daniel Nasini, head of the Rosario Grain Exchange, said that dredging work should remain in the hands of “specialise­d companies in the field.”

“The state has neither the experience nor the technical capacity to carry out these tasks,” he told Infobae, referring to record low water levels in the Paraná River.

“The decree raises concern because it does not provide certainty or long-term guidelines to ensure the continuity of the country’s most important waterway,” he added in a statement issued by the body.

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