November 26, 2015•Update: November 27, 2015
By Charles Newbery
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
President-elect Mauricio Macri on Wednesday unveiled a business-strong Cabinet as he seeks to revive economic growth and mend U.S. relations
Macri’s future Chief of Cabinet Marcos Pena announced the ministers in a televised press conference.
Appointees will take office when Macri, a 56-year-old conservative, becomes president Dec. 10, ending 12 years of populist rule.
The Cabinet includes a six-person economic team comprised of the ministers of agriculture, energy, labor, production, transport and treasury and finances.
In the Ministry of Treasury and Finances, Macri appointed Alfonso Prat-Gay, an economist with years of experience at U.S.-based JPMorgan Chase. He ran the Argentina’s central bank from 2002 - 2004.
Juan Jose Aranguren will oversee energy – a 37-year veteran of Shell Argentina.
Guillermo Dietrich, an economist with experience in auto retailing, will handle transport, while agriculture will be run by Ricardo Buyaille, a former vice president of the Argentine Rural Confederation, a big farm group.
Macri had said he would draw on industry professionals for his team, making a distinction with the outgoing administration’s penchant for political loyalists.
“Macri wants to demonstrate that he will have a technocratic government made up of officials who don’t come from politics but come with experience in industry,” former National Energy Secretary Enrique Devoto told Anadolu Agency. “Macri is putting importance on efficient, serious management.”
This will be key for attracting foreign investment that has sagged under the outgoing government, as price caps, export restrictions, capital controls and sudden regulatory shifts have cut profit potential and made it harder to do business.
Investment is a key for pulling the economy out of a four-year stagnation and rebuilding dollar reserves, which have plummeted to $25.8 billion from $53 billion in 2011.
Another change is expected to be in foreign relations.
The outgoing government put a focus on drumming up funding and investment from China, Russia and Venezuela. This was in part for ideological reasons, but also because the country couldn’t borrow abroad in the wake of a $100 billion default from 2001 that has yet to be fully settled.
Argentina’s cozying up to these countries as well as Iran has soured its diplomatic ties with Europe and the U.S.
Carlos Germano, a political analyst at Carlos Germano y Asociados, said he expects Macri will take steps to repair relations with the U.S. and “reinsert Argentina in the world”.
This effort will include distancing the country from Venezuela and Iran and putting a more professional team in the foreign ministry, he said.
To be sure, Macri named Susana Malcorra as his minister of foreign affairs.
She will come to the post after working since 2012 as the United Nations Chief of Cabinet, appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“She has direct access to world leaders,” Germano told Anadolu Agency. “We are going to see a 180-degree shift in Argentina’s foreign relations,” he said.
