New minister to take manufacturing measures forward
26/11/2008
The government of Argentina is continuing its efforts to boost the country's manufacturing sectors.
On November 25, president Cristina Kirchner, added a new ministerial post to her government, making Débora Georgi the country's first minister of production.
Ms Georgi will take up the post immediately, assuming responsibility for industry, agriculture, tourism and the national agency for development and investment.
The new minister is expected to announce before the end of 2008 a raft of measures to lift Argentina's production sectors. The measures will include fiscal incentives, tariffs to control imports of goods Argentinian companies can produce on home soil and grants. The leather and footwear sectors will be among the first to benefit.
One of the ideas to have come to light so far is the proposal that companies throughout the leather value chain should work together to make school shoes, made in Argentina from Argentinian leather, available to the nation's children at the same price as imported shoes.
The government has also said it will offer to freeze for ten years debts that companies owe the state in taxes if they agree not to lay off their workers and to give official status to unregistered workers.
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