 Dear President Macri, it is my great pleasure to welcome you back to Davos. When you last joined us here in 2016, it was shortly after your inauguration as President of Argentina. Over the past two years, you have worked really hard. You have successfully initiated key political and economic transformations in your country. Generating new jobs and boosting entrepreneurship. These future-orientated reforms combined with your resilient leadership have supported Argentina to strengthen its global positioning. This year, Mr President, you also joined us in an additional capacity as the chair of G20 presidency. In this role, you have stated that you will lead the G20 based on the principle of putting people first. Given your commitment to multilateralism, your leadership will be critical in helping to achieve more inclusive growth and intergenerational progress. It is imperative that leaders prioritize policies for ensuring a more sustainable planet and productive workforce. President Macri, we look forward to hearing your perspectives on the current state of the world and on your vision for Argentina and the G20. You can count on our full support as you continue your important work in the coming years. Mr President. Good morning everybody. Thank you Borgue for the introduction. With such a good presentation, I should hire you as my next chief of campaign. But as you mentioned only two years ago here in Davos, only one month after taking office, I share with many of you my vision for Argentina as a reliable partner for business and as an honest broker of global politics. Today I'm here to reinforce that vision. This year's theme at Davos is creating a shared future in a fractured world. Argentina has long suffered the consequences of that fracture because for decades we have been isolated from the world. But Argentina entered a new phase. We are now in the position to play a significant role on the international stage. In the last two years we put in order our economy and the country back on track as you recognize Borgue. Argentina is in a sustainable and steady path of inclusive growth. Every day we make decisions that drive us towards our primary goal of reducing poverty. The economy grew 42% in the third quarter last year and it's gaining momentum. Inflation fell to its lowest figure in a decade. Wages and income recovered and social security nets expanded. Poverty and employment rates were reduced throughout the year. We look towards the future with optimism. This already is our longest period of growth since 2011. Investment is booming with double digit growth. Today no other country has more potential than Argentina. We are reaching natural resources and we have something even more important than that. Our people's talent and entrepreneurship. We have awarded 147 renewable energy projects such as Parque Solano-Nogasta in La Rioja in the north of Argentina. Once the project is up and running it will generate enough energy to substitute imports to equal to 185,000 barrels of oil a year. We have also projects like Cautchari in the province of Ujubi that you should visit. It's a very beautiful place and that will be the largest in Latin America. I mentioned these two projects only to show the huge potential that Argentina has in renewable energy. Our country also has enormous potential to obtain large hydrocarbon reserves from unconventional resources. I'm talking about Baca Muerta, an extension of 35,000 square kilometers is the second largest reserve of unconventional gas in the world. We also have one of the largest reserves of lithium. Our pipeline of projects is getting bigger and bigger throughout the country. The opportunities in the mining sector are unique. In an area with the mining potential of more than three-quarters of a million square kilometers, our country had only granted permits on little more than one-third. Tourism is a massive opportunity, especially in the northern provinces I mentioned you before, where we are committed to promoting and increasing investments. During the last winter season we had encouraging results with the historical number of visitors and last year we had one million more airplane passengers than in 2016 and thousands of Argentines have flown for the first time. Moreover, between January and September we reached a record in terms of hotel occupancy, 15.5 million tourists. Another area of potential as you all know is food production. Argentina can become a fundamental provider with exports over 25 billion dollars, we are capable of producing food for more than 400 million people. Argentine food is present around the world and it's an example of our country's reputation in terms of innovation and quality. We have outstanding sanitary and environmental standards and are ready to meet the needs of the most sophisticated consumers. That's thanks to a persistent effort in developing new technology. Argentina's human resources and innovating ecosystem have the potential of transforming the country in the global hub for knowledge-based services. I want to mention to you that four of Latin American six unicorns come from Argentina. We are building political consensus around an agenda based on permanent reform. Argentina is leaving its populace experimenting behind as we were talking before, Borgen. And without avoiding an economic crisis and within democratic institutions, something that had never happened before in the country. Last month we began our presidency of the G20 in which we are very excited. Ten years have passed since the first leader summit in Washington DC. Today, unlike in 2008, global growth is stable, but it has not reached everyone and this undermines the confidence of many in globalization. This should be an everyday reminder that we have to do much more. The theme of our presidency is building consensus for fair and sustainable development. Argentina will bring a view from the south. We want to convey the voice not only of our country but that of the whole South American region. We established an agenda based in three key areas. First, the future of work. The G20 should help ensure that technological change will not increase exclusion or social disintegration. Education is at the center of this debate. The future will require substantial investment in training and updating skills. Second, infrastructure for development. It is crucial to mobilize private investment in order to close the global infrastructure gap. Third, a sustainable future in terms of food. As I mentioned before, Argentina is ready to make its contribution to global food security. Hosting the G20 is one of the biggest challenges in Argentina's history. We are committed to conveying the G20 with the same spirit of consensus that endures the ambitious agenda we are moving forward in Argentina. With the support of our partners, working together, we will strive to build a sure future of fair and sustainable development. Thank you. And now we can continue with some comments. Thank you very much, Mr. President. That's all your Spanish. Thank you very much. That's after the peace process in Colombia. I picked up a couple of words. It's great to have you back here, and we had a chance to chat a bit in the speaker's room, and we also were inspired by Churchill that once said the farther backward you can look, the farther forward we're likely to see. And the history of Argentina is very interesting. As the President mentioned to me, if you go back to 1910, the GDP of Argentina was almost equal with the one of the U.S. Absolutely. And if you go back to 1945, I think Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. So what happened in between, and when will we see Argentina back in the top, and what are the reforms you have to deliver on top of what you already have done to achieve that? Well, thank you, Jorge. Before I want to thank everybody for attending the conference, for being so supportive with Argentina, and with the help of the world, with good partners, we really believe that we are going in the path to be again an important global player. And I'm convinced of that because I think that we have learned of our bad past experiences. As you mentioned before, Argentina was a very rich country and still has the potential to be and to give vast opportunities to all our citizens. And the difference between this moment and other moments in the recent history of Argentina is that the changes are coming bottom up. And the citizens have understood that if we continue to be isolated from the world, what we are going to do is deepen our poverty problems. So we need to be part of the world. We are trying to come back to the world with an intelligent approach and build reliable and trustworthy relationships in long-term basis. And at the same time, as you may know, my first commitment with my citizens is to reduce poverty. I asked to be evaluated as president during these years if I achieve or not to reduce poverty. And to reduce poverty, you need to create jobs and improve education, the two important keys that you have. And for that, you need to increase investments. And to increase investments, you have to be reliable, predictable, build rule of law. And that's the central part of our job in the last two years. And I think that we have improved a lot. We have gained back clear and truth-worthy statistics where you can know what is going on in Argentina. We are cutting inflation. That is the worst tax that a government can collect from the people. We are working to improve transparency. We are battling against corruption that produces an incredible inefficiency that destroys jobs. I think that in this way, we are building a new environment, new regulatory frameworks to create new opportunities. And as I mentioned, my second theme, the second theme for the G20 monosities is moving private sector to build infrastructure, to build and operate infrastructure. And for that, we have approved a very modern PPP law and we are launching billions of dollars in new tenders, highways, energy ports, airports, waterworks. And fortunately, the first tenders have been very successful. Many companies from all around the world are attending the tenders and we expect that many others will come because I think that PPP tool is wonderful in terms of speeding up the investments and creating more room for transparency because you don't have to lead between the contractors and the government on a monthly basis. You lead only once. They get the contract, they have to build whatever they are committed and once they finish, they start collecting their money so that it speeds up, gains transparency and I think that this is fundamental to develop. Every developed country needs connectivity, physical and virtual connectivity so we are very focused on that. Unfortunately, with very good results and I expect that this year will be another step forward because we are talking about nearly 30 billion dollars of future investments that we are demanding from Argentines and foreigners. Mr President, I think there is consensus in this room that the rule of law is prerequisite also for foreign direct investments and doing business in countries. Predictability. There was a challenge in the previous years international companies that had invested also saw that their assets were being challenged to put it diplomatically. You also mentioned the fight against corruption you have seen in your neighboring country Brazil that this has been a really very important agenda item during the last years and the people end up in prison because of corruption and we are seeing also that corruption numbers are falling dramatically. Are we seeing the same in Argentina and is there a mind change when it comes to this? Yes, fortunately the same is going on in Argentina since we are in government the transparency we have gained incredible improvement in transparency we went from the place 50 something to we scaled like 20 in transparency let's say statistics and I think that we have to keep working in that sense for that obviously you have to work to improve the independence and the quality of your justice we are working on that and I think that fortunately this is something that we are really viewing as a Mercosur challenge and I think that what Brazil did is wonderful in terms of future even though during the process has ended up being a big crisis but for the future of Brazil what happened recently happened will be very good as it's very good for Argentina that we are getting rid of bad habits that don't help to create jobs don't help to reduce poverty and really very optimistic about what's going on and let me tell you that it's something all the reforms that we have moved forward that we had approved had been with the support of the opposition because we are in minority chambers that shows the strength of this new process in Argentina and in the proof that in all my trips I'm in my delegation is somebody from the opposition today is the governor of Entrario a very important governor, very important state and in all the trips they are coming with me because they are also part of this moment of Argentina trying to bring new investments new jobs and in that way to create opportunities from our people that's not the case in all capitals these days but congratulations on that inclusiveness also you mentioned Mercasur Mr. President you know traditionally we have seen Mercasur as something kind of trade alliance that has also been about protection we saw the Pacific Alliance being developed that had a different view on these issues but it seems like Mercasur is now changing very fast too there are discussions between Mercasur and the European Union Argentina hosted the WTO ministerial meeting in December so is it the real reform Mercasur we are seeing and you will see Mercasur now also establishing free trade agreements in a very offensive way all over the world just share shortly your view on that well till today Mercasur had been the closest region in the world with higher protections and we had understood all together that this didn't help to reduce poverty so we are moving forward to strengthen Mercasur and I think that the agreement between Mercasur and European Union is a huge opportunity for both for both we are near next week we are having a meeting at Brussels and any help will always be welcome because it sounds like a good idea no by the way you have good friends so you can talk with them if you really believe that Mercasur is also a good opportunity for European Union especially after Brexit and I think that it's a natural association because in South America we are all descendants from Europe so it should be the first important agreement before others that we are negotiating and we are close, we are very close I'm visiting President Macron tomorrow and I expect that he will give me good news because some birds tell me that the problem is always the agriculture point and that relates everybody to France so I expect that we will find a solution to that because this can be a great opportunity for both Mercasur, this will be a good guide to continue the path of reforms, a good association and for the European Union it's very difficult to find a better region in terms of food security in terms of energy especially renewables now that we are all pushing in that direction I think there's going to be a lot of youngish energy in that room when you meet with President Macron you have strong farmers in Argentina and strong farmers also in France so I would be interested to be a fly on the wall there I would have a very good dinner that's never a challenge in Elisa just two short questions before we wrap up before lunch talking about food you're talking also about Mercasur Venezuela at least was a part of this we are concerned about the development there we also saw signs in your country at a certain time that reminded us a little bit about the very toxic climate you're seeing now in Venezuela do you see any possibility to break the current impulse in Caracas? No, I'm not optimistic I have been claiming for open and clear elections in the last years I'm claiming from all the abuse that has been done by Maduro in Venezuela they don't respect human rights that's not the democracy unfortunately the citizens of Venezuela are suffering a lot we are in a sanitary crisis but unfortunately what we see is that things are going worse and worse last question, as I mentioned also in the introduction you have the presidency of G20 this year and you have high aspirations what do you think if we are privileged enough to have you in Davos also next year what would you hope that you have achieved in your G20 presidency when you're going to sum it up? I think that this is a very special moment in humans history the technological revolution that we are going through brings up the fear I expect that the first thing is to reduce fear fear drives us in the bad direction makes us to pay attention to messianic speeches that will not solve the problems and I think that G20 has proved to be a place in which a group of countries try to cooperate each other to increase inclusive growth I think that we have to work hard in education we need to convince the unions to be part of the changes and not to be always against the changes because we need to train our kids for jobs that today don't even exist so that's a huge challenge and we need to work together and we need to understand that that happened to the doctors for many years before that they have to keep studying every night that happens in every sector now we have to be ready to keep developing skills during our whole life this is the new world but this new world will open us surprise us with new opportunities for that obviously again we need infrastructure physical and virtual infrastructure so everybody will have the same tools and work together and the other issue that I want to raise is that for food security we need to produce more food and that means that we have a big challenge the G20 countries accomplish more or more 60% of agriculture land 80% of the trade in food and agriculture 60 and 80 so we have the challenge to bring to the place responsible land management techniques that will put in value with responsibility the soil as a strategic resource to sustainable development and produce food production and we have to bring up that because there is now starting a big debate in which we have to fulfill both things battle against climate change but produce more food thank you I'm positive that you will deliver a great G20 presidency and also all the best for the future reforms of your great country I'm sure that it will be I expect that you will all visit Argentina in the way to Argentina you can pass by the house of Argentina and taste some incredible delicious sweet bread and empanadas and wines that will show you some of so many incredible things that we can do in Argentina thank you there is no such thing as a free lunch