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Santiago Peña En La Cumbre Anual Concordia
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00:00We have in fact the longest currency in South America, we are reaching the 80 years time and just to put in perspective our neighbor Argentina took 16 zeros out of their currency on the same period of time.
00:16So Paraguay is a powerhouse in food production, Paraguay is a powerhouse in energy production, we are 100% clean renewable energy and we have the largest export of clean renewable energy per capita in the world.
00:30We have still today, after 50 years that was decided the construction, we have the largest hydroelectric in the world, larger than the three Georges in China.
00:39And we have this shared with Brazil and we have the third largest hydroelectric that we share with Argentina.
00:47So despite the fact that we are a landlocked country, we don't have a coast to the ocean, but we are surrounded by huge rivers and we have the third largest fleet of barges in the world after China and the Mississippi, Paraguay, a waterway that connects five countries.
01:05In fact, we are in the middle of a little conflict with our friends in Argentina in this issue.
01:10I had read something about that, yes.
01:14Yeah, I mean, it's incredible that the country is 100% renewable and, you know, is there, you know, if you're an American or a European or any investor really looking to come into Paraguay,
01:28which very honestly is, you know, is not often a country you hear of about investing in Latin America, what are the opportunities?
01:36Well, one of the things that we have decided as a society, and this is not only a decision of one administration, is the society,
01:44is that we want to have solid economic foundations.
01:48We have an independent central bank.
01:50We have a very sound macroeconomic policies long-term.
01:55We have the lowest debt to GDP.
01:57We have been for many years on the verge of becoming investment-grade, but markets are already assigning investment-grade rates,
02:06so our interest rate on long-term bonds are very, very low.
02:11We have, and we did something that a lot of people is talking around the world,
02:16we need to reduce taxes, so we're going to promote more investment.
02:20We did this 20 years ago.
02:22We reduced tax rate from 30% to 10%.
02:27So we have a very simple tax system, 10% VAT, 10% corporate taxes, and personal income tax.
02:36And it's very simple, and this has allowed the economy to expand over a long period of time,
02:41and the resources are allowing us to invest more in the areas that we think are the priority, human capital, education, and health.
02:49Well, the trick on all this is what Laffer said to the economists.
02:55If you move to the left of the curve, you're going to collect more taxes, and we did that.
03:00Our collection of taxes has been increasing, and this has allowed us for the private sector to grow.
03:06The economy in Paraguay is dominated by the private sector.
03:09We have a relatively small public sector, which is more and more concentrated on the areas that the public sector need to concentrate.
03:16And it's not the fabrication or the production of goods.
03:19That is the production of delivery of services, health, education, and security.
03:24So if you think one of the areas where you might think about investing in Paraguay,
03:29I would say all the transition to clean energy is something that is a must for Paraguay.
03:37Again, we are producing, we have abundance, clean, renewable energy,
03:41so we can use it now in Paraguay instead of selling this to our two partners, which are Brazil and Argentina.
03:48In fact, our industrial production is very linked to the Brazilian production system.
03:57So I think all that is related to clean renewable energy, clean hydrogen,
04:01this is something that is happening already in Paraguay.
04:04Biofuel also, Paraguay is one of the largest producers of grains, soy particularly,
04:09and soy is not only used to feed and create a protein, but also to create fuel.
04:16So I think in this energetic energy transition, Paraguay is probably going to be one of the big names in the world.
04:24Is tourism a part of the economy?
04:27Is it?
04:28Tourism, Paraguay for many years has been an island surrounded by land.
04:32This is how a very famous writer used to describe Paraguay, because we were isolated from the region.
04:38It's no surprise that you said, I never went to Paraguay.
04:42This is typically what we heard from many people.
04:45And Paraguayans were not used to go out.
04:48I mean, Paraguay was, 10 years ago, the last country in South America to become a regular issuer in the international bond market.
04:56People didn't know about Paraguay.
04:58So I think that tourism is something that is also going to grow.
05:02We have 44% of the entire country, and this is a country that is larger than Germany.
05:08When you look at the map, it looks very small, but it's huge.
05:11It looks small because it's compared to Brazil, which is a continent, and also Brazil is a very large country.
05:17But Paraguay is larger than Germany.
05:20We have 40 million hectares.
05:23Almost half of the entire territory is forest.
05:25So the biodiversity that Paraguay offers for this type of tourism and the sizing is just amazing.
05:36Asunción, which is the capital of Paraguay, will become 500 years old.
05:41It was founded almost 500 years ago, and it's known as the mother of all cities.
05:47And one of the projects that we are working under my administration is to make the capital the greener capital in the world.
05:55And we're going to connect current parks and have 1,000 hectares of parks in the middle of the city.
06:06This will be the largest combination of parks in the world in the middle of a capital.
06:11So I think this is something that also is going to call a lot of the tension.
06:15I want to switch gears a little bit to ask about something, the foreign relations of Paraguay.
06:21And one of the key sort of, let's say, notable facts about that is that Paraguay maintains relations with Taiwan
06:30and not the People's Republic of China.
06:34And one of, off the top of my head, I don't know five, six, seven countries around the world who have made that choice.
06:42Can you tell us why and is that difficult?
06:45They are currently, the easiest question, it's not difficult.
06:51It's very easy for those that we understand what are the type of relations that we want to have.
06:57There are 12 countries in the world that maintain relations with Taiwan.
07:01By far, Paraguay is the largest country in the world that maintain that relation.
07:05We have maintained that relation for the last 66 years.
07:08And under my administration, there is no reason even to discuss our relation with Taiwan.
07:16And the reason is not nostalgia.
07:19This is not the past and the history.
07:21This is the future.
07:22Where Paraguay stands today, an economy that is advancing very fast to moving from an economy dominated by the production of agricultural product and energy,
07:33but advancing very fast to industrial economy, we think that the experience of Taiwan, similar to the experience of Israel or South Korea,
07:45relatively small countries, next to large countries, is much better than thinking only selling raw materials to China.
07:53And it's very obvious.
07:55I mean, China has a huge industrial capacity.
07:58They produce a lot of, they manufacture a lot of products at very low prices.
08:02So if we were to think only on having relations with China, we're going to be selling only raw materials.
08:10And we want to do probably the harder way, but the right way that we allow Paraguay to connect not only with the 1.2 billion consumers in China,
08:22but with the 10 billion consumers that will be around the corner in 2050, that are looking for food, that are looking for water,
08:31that are looking for clean renewable energy, and all the things in where Paraguay is a rich country.
08:36Right. Got it. Turning to, as you know, Concordia focuses a lot on public-private partnerships.
08:45That's how the organization was started 13 years ago, to help governments and business and non-profits be more efficient in their,
08:53you know, in their interactions.
08:56And we do that through events like this publicly, through private events.
09:01Do you view public-private partnerships as an important part of your strategy for your government?
09:08And are there any notable examples that you can share?
09:12Sure.
09:13I said that one of the advantages that Paraguay has built as a society is the private and public engagement,
09:23the discussion, this conversation, if we're able to agree that maintaining sound economic policies is good for the country,
09:30that having an independent central bank that maintain low inflation, and this is a public good.
09:36This is not only good for bankers or people who wants to work on financial inclusion.
09:42This is good for the most vulnerable, because inflation, we know, is the most unfair tax that we can deliver.
09:52So, those are agreements that we were built on this public and private dialogue.
09:58We have materialized this also in the participation of the private sector in the construction of public infrastructure highways.
10:07In 2013, we approved one of the most advanced laws in PPPs.
10:14And the good advantage or the advantage of Paraguay is that because we are running behind, we're running behind,
10:20not because we did it wrong and we have a crash or a financial crisis, it's just the matter of what happened on the history of Paraguay.
10:28And that conflict that 150 years shaped the development of Paraguay in a very important period of time, so now we can see what other nation has done correctly and what they have done in the wrong way.
10:46So, we are taking the good experience and implementing in Paraguay, so 10 years ago we launched this PPP law, it was the most advanced at the moment, and we have several projects now that are working very well.
10:58Projects that came to New York, they got the financing, they have been implemented, and they have created a different source of financing for public infrastructure, which is one of the biggest challenges of Paraguay.
11:11Paraguay is a land log, but it's located in a position, in a location in the middle of South America that you cannot avoid.
11:21The waterway that connects five countries, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Paraguay, goes through the middle of Paraguay.
11:30The entire waterway goes through the middle of Paraguay.
11:33Then we have the land transportation, the land transportation that make Paraguay the shortest way to connect the Pacific to Atlantic.
11:43We are building a bioseanic highway that will connect the ports of Sao Paulo to the ports of Chile.
11:51And this is the shortest way, you cannot go other way around.
11:54What kind of highway?
11:55It's the bioseanic, it's called bioseanic highway, and cross just through the middle of the Chaco region of Paraguay.
12:02So this is, there is no other way.
12:04This is the only way that if you want to cross from the Pacific to Atlantic, you have to go through there.
12:11So those are the things that, in a way, are giving Paraguay a very good platform.
12:16But again, it's not only a location.
12:19I think that the potential of the Paraguay, and we Paraguayans need to understand the potential that the country have.
12:25A couple of decades ago, 20 years ago, I came here to New York.
12:29I went to Columbia University.
12:31And I remember very clearly, I was in an event organized by university, and a teacher was giving a lecture on Latin America.
12:39And he spoke about all the countries in Latin America.
12:42And he concluded his remarks saying, the only country I'm not going to talk about is Paraguay.
12:47Because I don't know nothing about Paraguay. But it's good.
12:52I mean, this is our fault. It's not the world fault.
12:56I worked with other small countries in Africa.
12:59And it's not easy for good things to come out of the small countries.
13:04And Paraguay, for many, it had been isolated.
13:07So we are now in the show.
13:09Well, I feel less bad about not knowing enough about Paraguay if a professor at Columbia of Latin America doesn't know about it.
13:16So just one final question before we wrap up.
13:21What's the relationship like between the United States and Paraguay?
13:24Great. We have a great relation.
13:26The problem that we have, all the countries in South America and Latin America in general,
13:31that we are so close to the U.S. but sometimes we are very far away.
13:36And one of the problems that Paraguay have is that it's not a problem.
13:41You know? There are not many problems in Paraguay.
13:44So that sometimes, and it happened with kids. I have two kids.
13:48And you always give more attention to the one who is always making trouble.
13:53Yes. So you're in no trouble, so you're just...
13:56Exactly. We have a great relation. We have a great relation.
13:59And this has been forever. We are a good friend. And our relation with Taiwan is a testimony of...
14:09We want to build long-term relations. We are not looking only to see what is the balance of payment.
14:15What do I sell you? What do I produce for you? No, no. We are looking for long-term relations.
14:21We have the longest dictatorship in South America, 35 years. We are a young democracy.
14:27We know the value of democracy, of free speech, of free rights.
14:31So these are the things that we want to advocate.
14:34Well, I think you certainly have a room full of very curious people here now.
14:40And now they are not feeling bad because they didn't know nothing about Paraguay.
14:44And many more thousands on watching us live. So again, Mr. President, it's an honor to have you here.
14:52We wish you luck in your term. If Concordia can do anything to help at any time, please let us know.
14:58And we wish you best of luck in your first UNGA week.
15:03Thank you very much, Nikai.
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