Home ->business women clothes ->Martín Cabrales in Punta del Este: "I am very sorry every time a businessman leaves Argentina"

As every summer, Martín Cabrales takes refuge in Punta del Este to rest for a good part of January. Later, he travels to Mar del Plata, where he combines vacations and work, before returning to the City. The businessman works as vice president of Cabrales SA and Bodegas Norton; He is a member of the Board of the Executive Committee of the Coordinator of the Food Products Industries (COPAL) and of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA); he is a member of the Board of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange and, in addition, he is vice president of the Argentine Coffee Chamber.

In an interview with Infobae, he analyzed the current situation in the country, anticipated what he envisions for this 2022, referred to the agreement with the IMF, gave his opinion on price controls and highlighted that the pandemic of COVID-19 highlighted the importance of formal employment.

— Were you able to speak with the Argentine businessmen who settled in Uruguay? Can you imagine following in his footsteps?

— Yes, I was able to talk to some of them and every time a businessman leaves Argentina, I am very sorry. Quantitatively, perhaps there are not many, but qualitatively it is a very significant number because they are very large, important and successful businessmen. They did not want to leave: they felt suffocated by tax pressure. For this reason, within the plan that Argentina must have, it is necessary to attract capital so that it returns, not only international capital, but also Argentine capital. We have to trust our country and, for that, we need a currency that, today, we do not have, nor do we believe in it. I'm not going to leave the country because my factory is in Argentina, it's a family business, I just turned 80 and I'm rooted, but there's always the possibility of doing business abroad. You always think so. Of course, one of the needs is the import. Also, I could have business in another country, but leaving as a company or as a person, I think not. But I understand those who leave. I don't judge them because I understand them.

— What outlook do you see for Argentina in 2022?

— It's not going to be an easy year... Easy years are not coming in the world and especially in Argentina, because we live submerged in a crisis from which we still haven't emerged. There is growth, a rebound in the economy... And the challenge is to transform it into constant and sustained growth over time.

— Which measures do you consider to be a priority?

— The first is not to spend more than you take in. We need a policy of incentives for investment and production. It is necessary to have as a goal the generation of employment to get out of the plans. In this sense, unions are also bridges that help generate employment.

At that table, where we all have to agree, that leg cannot be missing. There has to be the business side, the government, the opposition and, obviously, the unions.

—Why is it important for Argentina to get out of informal employment?

— The pandemic taught us the importance of formal employment. The people who were in the informal sector, or the self-employed, depended only on help from the State. The others received their salary. For this reason, it is essential to get out of informality and a country of plans. In any case, today plans are necessary urgently and immediately, because this has to be gradual.

The next few years are not going to be easy, but I do not see them as impossible as long as there is a clear horizon, that there are certainties: a State plan and policies in which one knows that, even if governments change, it will continue working in the same direction. It cannot be that a government arrives and changes everything that the previous one did. The same thing always happens. For this reason, dialogue and bridges between the government and the opposition are important.

Martín Cabrales in Punta del Este: “ I am very sorry every time a businessman leaves Argentina”

The pandemic has shown us how fragile we are: the need for the other, that one cannot save oneself, and the need to have a formal and strong economy so as not to live off welfare. State intervention is important, but urgently and immediately. Afterwards, it is we -the entrepreneurs- who have to create wealth to combat poverty.