“The government has no friends in the business world”

Are business assets changing hands, first from foreign to local players and then from the latter to people closer to government ideology?

I reject that entirely, the truth is no. Changes of hands are customary in the Argentine economy as in many others in the world. It cannot be said that any of these movements has anything to do with anything the government is pushing. This government has no friends in the business world but has dialogue with all sectors. We might have more conceptual affinity with some than with others but there are no friends in the sense you say.

Is it good or bad that foreign companies are leaving and being substituted by national capital?

In that sense I have no kind of dogma or prejudice. It is neither good nor bad. I’m interested in seeing productive projects, what their aims are and that they incorporate jobs, technology and innovation.

Whether that is done by a local or foreign company is secondary.

A false debate has been installed as to whether there is an exodus of companies and disinvestment. That’s not true. Investment in the first quarter of this year increased 14 percent against 2019. Since the Alberto Fernández government began, there have been over 900 announcements of investment, many implemented, to the tune of US$34 billion, of which just under half comes from foreign companies while the rest is local firms of all sizes. We have a very strong policy of backing the investments of PYMES (small and medium-sized companies) but we also celebrate investment in general terms. We do see changes of hands which have to do with international strategies. Walmart made the decision to withdraw from Brazil, Britain and Argentina. That was no exodus. It was purchased by another businessman, Francisco de Narváez, somebody who knows the sector.