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First, just letting you know that I'm not going to sing or dance, so... for everyone's ease of mind.
Second, I want to tell you that what I came to
do here, with you, is to share my dream
and I'm sure that it probably is the dream of many of you.
to build, help building a country, a developed country, a country that is
capable of overcoming this vicious circle of poverty and underdevelopment
A country that's learnt to be inclusive and that understands that development isn't only
about economics but that it has to be social and environmental for it to be sustainable.
This is the country that I believe in. And this dream, I think it is possible.
And I think that it's possible because the conditions are there. It will depend on us that we turn
this dream into a belief. A belief that has the strength and the mystics capable of transforming
the country. That's how Corea, Irlanda and Singapur recently made it.
When an ideal for a country and a dream grow in the collective imagination
of a country, of a nation, it allows for the greatest desires of the community, of the society,
which are its people's wellbeing, to become a reality.
And this depends of us, depends of all that we are here.
And I simply want to tell you how possible I see this dream.
I think that the key for a little, mediterranean country, with a small market, like Paraguay,
is to look at the world.
The option we have as a country, I would say the only one to grow, is growing
outwards, turning the world into our market. And, somehow, the projects the business group I belong to
is carrying out answer to this first framework, this first concept, this first challenge.
Paraguay has to grow outwards to
be sustainable in its growth, with such a small market.
And nowadays the world offers us an unrepeatable opportunity in our history.
Not even our best rulers, from the wonderful golden age of Paraguay,
like Carlos Antonio López, have had the objective conditions that we Paraguayans have right now.
Carlos Antonio López didn't have the electric energy reserves that we have now.
He didn't have the amount of young population that we have now.
He didn't have a market in the Pacific, consuming what we produce. He didn't have any of these.
And he was able to develop what was probably
the best age of our nation. We have a lot more than that,
so we can do it. And my exposition is going to be based essentially
on this: where are we standing as a country?
What are the conditions that the world is offering to us today?
We are placed in the middle, in the heart of the most important world commerce flow
existing nowadays. The Atlantic, producing food, electric energy, minerals.
energy, minerals. The pacific, consuming it.
And Paraguay is in the middle, exactly in the middle.
Paraguay then can become the great hub of services, logistics and commerce
of this part of the world. We have everything to make it happen.
Moreover, we have the advantage that Brazilian geopolitics have changed.
Brazilians were not eager to negotiate directly with
the Pacific through Paraguay and Chile. But today, with an almost hegemonic power in the region from
a commercial point of view, today they say yes, let's cross the continent,
let's go to the Pacific, let's open our market to the Pacific.
You know that in this connection system we are part of the central interoceanic axis.
We are part of Mercosur, Chile. We have some links to the Andean axis.
We are in the middle of the waterway. Pay attention to what takes place in this same area.
This is the area that has the central biooceanic corridor we are part of, and it has
the biggest gas reserve in the world. You must have read in the press a few days ago
that Brazil discovered some gas wells that will allow it to be self-sufficient. Bolivia
has its share. As Argentina does. It's also the biggest reserve of hydroelectric energy
per person in the world, if we count Yasitepá..., Itaipú and all the hydroelectric plants in Brazil.
By far, this is the biggest renewable energy reserve, which is not an insignificatn issue
in this time when fuel is starting to be a complicated problem to keep the economic values.
We are also the biggest agroindustrial production area.
If we sum up Paraguay, Argentina, Brasil and Uruguay we are the largest food producers in the world.
producers in the world. Paraguay produces food for 60 million people.
We are 6 million. If we add the grain and meat production
in this part of the continent, it is without doubte the biggest world power today.
But not only that, we are also one of the places with a larger capacity regarding mines.
And you know that China, in its growing process,
one of the highest demands it has of products is that of minerals.
Food, fundamentally iron. And this iron is mainly in the Mutum,
and that iron from Mutum has not other way to go down than through the Paraguay river. That's why the waterway
is a key issue. Imagine what all the iron and minerals demand of China,
going down from Brazilian territory through the Paraguay river,
would mean for the waterway, for Paraguay's commerce and economy. So if we connect
the highway network, the river navigation system, the railway network
and the air transportation system, Paraguay has all the conditions to become a great service hub,
a great logistics hub. It's not casual that, as I read in yesterday's news,
that the fourth biggest barge company in the world is set in Paraguay
This is not causal.
So Paraguay is going to become a logistics center. This country, our country, is going to develop,
with us or without us. It depends on us that we want to be part
of this process. And we have to be part of this process.
I think that what happened with the soy is a convincing example that that's the way it is.
The same place, the same soil, the same water, the same sun, it had been there for a long time
until developers came and we have the soy that we have.
Fortunately, there's a high local participation in the farming and what we are doing
gets this sense of national personality. But, regarding all these opportunities,
unless we do our part, we are not going to take advantage of it. And the circumstances
and the conditions are there. The world is not going to wait for us forever.
Now there are favorable conditions, the wind is behind us.
We must take advantage of it. Now it's the time. And the opportunities are countless. Again,
let's pay attention to the railway system, for example. Brazil already has
a line that comes from Río de Janeiro and stops at the Paraguayan border.
It has another line that comes from Sao Paulo Santo and stops in Cascavel and then resumes its way from the Chilean territory.
We must do this too.
The same goes for the highway system. 93 00:08:52,460 --> 00:08:58,220 Let alone the air navigation system. Let's not talk about that.
What we just went through an year ago... The authorization of our airport
is an absolutely inexorable necessity. A country that needs to get connected, a mediterrenean country
needs an air transportation system dramatically in order to make the most of this opportunity.
One hour and 45 minutes. We not only have the main capitals
of the area at one hour and 45 minutes' flight.
It's there. We are not doing what we must. Paraguay and Asunción
can become again what they were in their origins. Center of conquest, mother of cities.
It depends on us. The challange is here. We have to work in order for this to be possible.
What do we have to do? There is a huge list
of things but we have to prioritize some.
Without any doubt, I think we will agree that a small country
like ours can only find an opportunity to grow outwards.
So, growth directed outwards, the systematic exportation like Chile did...
This is what Paraguay must do. This is the way to solve the problem
because we are going to create employment. And when we create employment we can solve
solve a lot of problems and we can help contribute to solving poverty problems. De manera genuina
In an honest way, giving honest income to our more than 2 million compatriots,
excluded from everything, excluded from education, excluded from health,
excluded from opportunities. And this is our opportunity to make it happen.
Chile has dramatically reduced its unemployment at the same rate it increased its exportation.
And Paraguay can do that too.
What should we do? For a mediterrenean country, infrastructures are essential, absolutely essential.
We should be investing at least one thousand of dollars in the next 10 years
to meet a level of competitiveness that allows as to take advantage of this situation,
geo-strategically, geographically strategic, that' s key.
And this doesn't only concern the highway network, but the waterway. We should have a river
working 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. But when there's bad weather
or at nighttime, the river doesn't work, it's not marked.
The water goes down a little, it doesn't work. There has to be a permanent system like the Missisipi's, for example.
And you know that Paraguay is the second
most important river fleet in the world.
And we are not working on the route that the barges must follow
Just today we are transporting through Paraguay river eight millions tones.
Eight. Including soy, steel, cement, and some minerals that come from Mutún and Bolivia.
Eight million tones. The 60, 70% of what we export goes through the river.
Thus the waterway is a key issue.
The road network and the air system too.
But not just that. The education issue... Infrastructures for education, infrastructures
for health, infrastructures for sanitation, for example.
The estimations agree on this, I think
that most foundations and analysts agree on this number:
we have to invest on thousand million dollars per year in all these areas.
And a growth of the 6% is going to allow us
a good level of exportations in order to turn our country into a developed one
in the next 10 or 20 years, like today's Chile.
We have to invest in education. Maybe this is the most important issue that we have
to turn into a systematic and systemic process in Paraguay.
At all levels. From gestation. An Irish friend explained to me
how Irish revolutionize the education in Ireland.
They started working with women who were expecting from the gestation,
then in the early childhood, primary education, then secondary education with the corresponding education,
then in the early childhood, primary education, then secondary education with the corresponding education,
We need to cover all these areas. It's maybe here where we have the greatest deficiency
and where the work is much harder because we need human resources.
Maybe in the infrastructure investment we need capital resources but here
we need human resources. The truth, the education topic is an absolutely critical issue.
A few days ago I was talking to 500 student of ICe and I came out very depressed
and told Magui 'with these players, I don't know, we are not going to get there'.
We need to do something really important, radical. I imagine this country with 2500
of its best students studying abroad. Or 5000 of the best high school students
with a grant to go to university, in universities working together with companies to prepare training.
So, something revolutionary. If we keep on doing the same old stuff, the result is also going to be the same.
We are not going to move forward in the quantity and speed we need to be moving on.
I believe the greatest challenge is education. Obviously, we have trainings, we have infrastructures,
tenemos mercado. Esto nos va a permitir generar un desarrollo en lo que tiene que ver con
we have markets. This is going to allow us to create development in those issues
concerning industries, industries that have to do with what we produce, to add value to what we produce. Again, like Chileans did with salmon.
They starting competing with basic products. And Chileans produce cattle, salmon, I don't know, anything, right?
We can also do that. Fortunately we are already doing it.
Every day there are more soy oil plants settled in Paraguay, and this is a good sign.
But we need to cover the whole spectrum. And this is why we will need this:
we need state policies aimed at gaining investments.
It's incredible how unknown our country is. Once I had to go to some conferences
conferences in the real state hall in Punta del Este, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo. Right here,
right next to us, people don't know, when they see the macro values, that we own
right next to us, people don't know, when they see the macro values, that we own
They can't believe it. Let alone the Argentineans.
And when the Central Bank makes a speech in Paraguay people think that's a value, isn't it a minor value?
It means that we can go out to the world today
and tell them that this capital, this liquidity that developed countries have at the moment,
in Europe, in the United States,
their capitals there are healthy, and looking for opportunities where to be invested.
This is what China is doing. What is China doing?
China? China está haciendo una política a nivel global de captar inversiones y produciendo
China doing global politics aimed at gaining investments and producing in China what was before produced in Europe or in the United States.
And it comes to us and buys us soy and sells us ACs,
they sell us cars, lifts... Why can't Paraguay do this?
Why can't we as a country go find liquidity centers around the world
and bring the investments here to transform our raw material into elaborated products and, thus, generate
employment and help finish with poverty?
I believe this is the plan we have to follow, I already talked about it a bit....
I want to show you this graphic that illustrates
the increase of exportations is proportional to the decrease of poverty.
This objective information is about Chile. How they reduced poverty
overtime at the same proportion they increased exportations.
And this is what I think that we have to do. And even more in our case. There are some graphics
that show these aspects. But they are telling me that--
But more than numbers, more than graphics, what I think
this is about is daring to dream. Believe that this is possible. If other countries did it,
why can't we do it? If we can do it in some areas,
like in football or the meat industry or in other areas, why can't we do it globally
as a country? We can do it. I believe I am, like Federico
said today, I am a very humble witness that it's possible.
When people ask me how it is possible that ten years ago I was growing cotton
and now I am designing buildings... The key was education. The key were
my values. And the key were my principles. And the key was my determination. And my dreams
and my passion. They are intangible values. Under no circumstances money was the key.
The key was the passion. And the dreams. I'm full of dreams, I am a hopeless dreamer
and I'm the same as you. So I'm sure that you will agree with me that the best
of this country is yet to come. It depends on us to turn it into a reality. Thanks
a lot.