Governor Omar Perotti participated this Tuesday, in Santiago del Estero, in a new meeting of the Interjurisdictional Committee of the Bajos Submeridionalesintegrated by the provinces of Santa Fe, Chaco and Santiago del Estero, an act that was headed by the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández.
The meeting took place in the Forum of the Convention and Exhibition Center of the city of Santiago del Estero and the local governor, Gerardo Zamora, and his Chaco counterpart, Jorge Capitanich also participated; the national ministers of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro, and of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis; and the Minister of Infrastructure, Public Services and Habitat of the province of Santa Fe, Silvina Frana, among others.
Also read: Important advances after the meeting of governors and ministers for the Bajos Submeridionales
On the occasion, Perotti stated that “in our province we always say that we are from the Central Region, but this part is felt by geography, climate and idiosyncrasy direct part of the link with Santiago del Estero and Chaco. This enormous expanse with little population saw many attempts at meetings, studies and projects, which became outdated over time”.
“The efforts made in these three years place a high value on the integration policy of the provinces and the clear understanding of the Nation”, affirmed the governor and highlighted “the work that occurs daily between the provinces and the technical areas of the national ministries”.
“This area will more than return the resources it receives due to the capacity of its people, due to the productive potential and the transformation that these works will generate, which took into account important details and the possibility of demonstrating production to the world with that free sustainability. of deforestation and taking care of our environment”added the provincial president of Santa Fe.
“We have that huge challenge. Today with two key announcements: the interjurisdictional road with Santiago del Estero, which greatly regulates the entry of water and the adjudication of this high-impact work such as the San Javier – San Cristóbal – Ceres y Tostado aqueduct. Two works of which three years ago nobody dared to raise them. They were described as interesting and important, today we are specifying them”, concluded Perotti.
In turn, the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, stressed that “it has been explained very well how has progress been made in the work of this Interjurisdictional Committee of the Submeridional Lowlands”. He then pointed out that “we are building a country with enormous development in the center, and with enormous difficulties in the north and south; so one of the first things I ordered is to pay close attention to the north, because it has been forgotten time and time again, and there are problems to solve”.
“And we did it, because we are convinced that the north needs it; but more convinced that the Federal country of which the Constitution speaks, is not a declamation, it is an order imposed by the National Constitution”, highlighted Fernández; and he warned that “at this time we have a great opportunity to develop north and south, because the world is demanding goods that are in the north and south of Argentina.”
“It’s time for us to think a development plan for the next 10 years, because we can be protagonists of the production of the goods that the world is demanding. It is a federal challenge to make the north and south have the same opportunities as the center of the country to develop, we must do it, so that Argentina is more egalitarian, so that it is a federal country, so that there are no first and second class citizens ”, concluded the president.
For his part, Katopodis highlighted “the firm and clear commitment about what to do with this productive region, this basin, and we promised that here we would all roll up our sleeves to move forward with a clear goal, which is to reverse a long time of neglect, unfulfilled promises and diagnoses. We are investing 141,000 million pesos in a basin in 87 works, completed, and underway in the three provinces, which demonstrates our very clear commitment.”
Meanwhile, de Pedro said that “the institutional strength of the committee is being worked on, we understand that the public policies of a national government committed to federalism and the provinces. The more institutionality there is, the better, because we want this strategic plan that is being coordinated between the provinces and the CFI to end up being a public policy of the State and that it can transcend several governments.”
In addition, he recalled that for Perotti, “the Submeridional Bajos represent 20% of the territory and 9% of the population, for which reason several governments have prioritized works where the population was greater and has another revenue. Now works are done thinking about the productive profile and the roots”.
FEDERAL WORK
Next, Capitanich maintained that “having sewers, water reservoirs, defense of cities, canal cleaning and, together with that, interprovincial works, we will have fulfilled the essence of this Committee. That is why the significant importance of recovering this Committee as a space for strategic planning, for the solidification of State policies and for the execution of works that will change the region forever.
Finally, the governor of Santiago remarked that everything that is done from this Committee is done “from federalism. This federalism that gave birth to the country, which must be defended, which has many asymmetries in terms of regions, which has generated the impoverishment of a federal country that has become unitary in terms of investment, vision, being able to value and highlight. But, above all, to develop all the potential that today more than ever is seen in the interior of the country, shows that in the face of this situation from which we come, from the pandemic first, then this war in Europe that has generated a global impact and economic, the importance of the production of all our Argentine regions”.
“In this sense, the governors of Chaco, Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero we are taking important steps and we cannot fail to highlight the accompaniment that we have had from the first moment of the national ministries present here, and of the Federal Investment Council (CFI)”, said Zamora, who also highlighted “the decision of the national government and the presence today of the president, which shows us that we are on the right path”, concluded Zamora.
They are currently invested more than $23.5 billion, between national and provincial funds, in water infrastructure works and projects; while during 2022 more than $11,500 million were invested in productive public policies.
Also participating in the meeting were the provisional president of the National Senate, Claudia Ledesma Abdala de Zamora; the General Secretary of the Presidency, Julio Vitobello; the secretary of the Federal Water Council, Ignacio Enríquez; the head of Special Projects of the Federal Investment Council (CFI), Guillermo Borgnoli; the lieutenant governor of the province of Santiago del Estero, Carlos Silva Neder; among others.
AGREEMENT
During the meeting, an agreement was signed between the Nation and the provinces of Santiago del Estero and Santa Fe to join efforts in order to carry out all the necessary actions to promote the development of the Work Project “Hidrovial Interprovincial Santa Fe – Santiago del Estero – Section III”.
In addition, the agreement was signed for the award in the first half of January 2023 of the San Javier – Tostado Aqueduct, for an estimated total investment of $48,000 million, which will benefit 124,000 inhabitants of 14 towns in the north of the province of Santa Fe.
