Alem Tedeneke, Media Manager, World Economic Forum; Tel.: +1 646 204 9191, Email: ated@weforum.org
· The Fourth Industrial Revolution is complicating efforts to address poverty and inequality
· Building trust between leaders and citizens is crucial to driving new growth, said President Macri
· The World Economic Forum on Latin America 2017 opens with more than 1,000 participants
· For more information on the meeting: www.wef.ch/la17
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 6 April 2017 – Dealing with the technological leaps of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the biggest challenge facing Latin America as countries address problems such as poverty and inequality, President Mauricio Macri of Argentina told participants in the opening session of this year’s World Economic Forum on Latin America. “The greatest challenge is the technological leap we are seeing these days,” he said. “If you shut yourself down, that will be tough and will only delay the arrival of innovation. We need to prepare our children for jobs that don’t even exist today.”
In outlining his government’s action agenda to address poverty and tackle inflation, Macri stressed the importance of building trust through responsive and responsible leadership. “Trust is the driver of growth in any society,” he declared. “Poverty reduction is achieved by creating jobs. We need to create an atmosphere of trust and to be predictable and believable so that Argentines will create opportunities for themselves.” He added: “We lost the muscle of competitiveness and productivity. The big challenge for Argentina now is to channel the human talent of this country.” This means expanding the potential for building a prosperous future by setting out clear and fair rules and by creating new models of education that will foster entrepreneurship and creativity, Macri said.
Macri also underscored the importance of deepening integration among the economies of Latin America. “The first step is the integration within Mercosur and then the integration with the Pacific Alliance,” he explained, referring to the two major trade blocs in the region. This process will take years but “promises a lot in terms of growth potential,” the president concluded.
Earlier, in his welcoming remarks, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, agreed that rapid technological change is the dominant force of the new age. “Innovation will be the key to surviving in the competitive landscape of tomorrow,” he said. “We know that the big challenges can only be solved and the big opportunities can only be exploited if there is public-private cooperation.”
More than 1,000 business, government and civil society leaders are taking part in the 12th World Economic Forum on Latin America in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 5 to 7 April 2017. The theme of the meeting is “Fostering Development and Entrepreneurship in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.
The Co-Chairs of the World Economic on Latin America are: Asheesh Advani, President and Chief Executive Officer, JA Worldwide, USA; Hans-Paul Bürkner, Chairman, The Boston Consulting Group, USA; Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Germany; Alejandro P. Bulgheroni, Chairman, Bridas Corporation, Argentina; Marcos Bulgheroni, Executive Director, Pan American Energy LLC, Argentina; and Eduardo S. Elsztain, Chairman, IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones, Argentina.
Notes to Editors
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