Governor Maximiliano Pullaro met this Tuesday with the ambassador of the European Union (EU) in Argentina, Amador Sánchez Rico, and diplomatic representatives of the countries that make up the economic bloc, in a working meeting held as part of the tour that the delegation is making through the provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fe and Córdoba, given the importance of the Central Region as a strategic partner of the EU, which recognises it as the most important productive and agri-food region in the country.
During the activity held at the White Hall of the House of Government in the city of Santa Fe, the Governor explained: "We resume the concept of "Invincible Province of Santa Fe" as the axis of our government policies because we understand that Santa Fe at this time can make a significant contribution to the recovery of Argentina, for what are the characteristics of the people, the land, the sky, our river, and we see that we have immense possibilities to contribute to the recovery of Argentina".
Pullaro added: "Santa Fe is the farm, the industry, but it is also the ports that take 80% of our country's exports, so we want to be the first exporting province of Argentina", and asserted: "We are working hard, contributing and accompanying the private sector so that it can develop, and understand that from this place and with this model we can also strengthen many commercial and institutional relations with different countries, so we are honoured that you can be here today".
Finally, the governor said: "We have an agenda of extremely important issues to convey to you and to be able to work together, which have to do with all the commercial challenges facing the province, but also with the challenges we face at the global level: the strengthening of democratic institutions in Argentina, the 2030 Agenda, and the entire development agenda that we are currently considering".
A path to continue delving
While vice-governor Gisela Scaglia acknowledged: "We are a province that strives to accomplish our goal that is to be the first exporting province of Argentina, and we are going to achieve it, we are on a path of growth and with a very big job in that.
Afterwards, the province's Secretary for International Relations, Claudio Diaz, said that this "is surely a starting point for further progress in the field of trade relations, political relations and international cooperation relations, which is something we want to deepen, so we understand that this is an important step to then continue in the operational field".
Finally, the EU ambassador to Argentina, Amador Sánchez Rico, said that "these types of visits have a great deal of added value, because we know that Buenos Aires is what it is, but Argentina is much more, and it is impossible for us to do our work well without getting to know the reality of the rest of the country up close and familiar with it, and the idea of being here today is to get a complete overview of investment, of working with civil society and with the authorities".
He also stressed that "in this country we have had companies for more than 100 years, some of which are in this province, there are around 20 or 30 companies from European Union countries present in Santa Fe, around 900 in the country, with around 40-50% of foreign direct investment coming from the European Union in Argentina, and there is no doubt that there is room for much more".
Attendees
Also present at the event were the Ministers of Economy, Pablo Olivares; of Culture, Susana Rueda; of Health, Silvia Ciancio; and of Environment and Climate Change, Enrique Estevez; the Secretaries of Justice, Santiago Mascheroni, and of Foreign Trade, Georgina Losada; the Undersecretary of the Central Region, Claudia Giaccone; the advisor to the Executive Branch, Jorge Alvarez; and the Mayor of Santa Fe, Juan Pablo Poletti, among others.
Meanwhile, the EU delegation was made up of the ambassadors of Austria, Andreas Melan; Belgium, Karl Dhaene; Bulgaria, Stoyan Mihaylov; Slovakia, Rastislav Hindicky; Finland, Nicola Lindertz; Greece, Efstathios Paizis Paradellis; Ireland, Gerard McCoy; Republic of Cyprus, Stelios Georgiades; Czech Republic, Jarmila Povejsilová; and Romania, Dan Petre; and the First Counsellor of the German Embassy, Patricia Alvarez-Plata.
