Paolo Rocca: “We are entering a global phase where security and independence will be the order of the day”

Speaking on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the SME Observatory Foundation (Fundación Observatorio PyME - FOP), Paolo Rocca declared that, "Latin America has the opportunity to redesign the value chain, as Vaca Muerta has all the capacity needed to develop the gas industry, bolstering the entire supply chain." Ezequiel Tavernelli, director of ProPymes Argentina, was also present at the event.

On Technical Education Day, Fundación Observatorio PyME (FOP) celebrated 25 years of work supporting small and medium-sized enterprises by holding its Biennial Conference on "Productive convergence between SMEs and Large Companies: digital transformation, technical education and energy efficiency at each territorial level." The event was an opportunity for businessmen, educators, technicians, officials and experts to engage in constructive dialogue and foster meaningful exchange between different sectors. The main theme of the conference was how to create the right conditions for greater convergence as regards productivity, between large and small companies.

The opening speech was given by Giorgi Alliata Di Montereale, the President of FOP, who said that, "Today we are celebrating 25 uninterrupted years of work, a milestone that we were only able to achieve thanks to the commitment and dedication of our highly qualified technical team. Our ongoing task has been to produce data to encourage action and we believe it to be an extremely useful instrument for public and private sector decision-making. We have devised a meticulous analytical methodology to construct a vision of the current state of affairs which shines a spotlight on what is needed to tackle problems." He concluded his words of welcome by thanking "the companies that collaborate with our work, leading the way in job creation," adding that, "Technical education is directly related to the creation of companies."

Di Montereale's words were followed by a keynote panel moderated by the international analyst Fabián Calle. Paolo Rocca was joined by Jorge Argüello, Argentine ambassador to the United States, in a discussion entitled "The new international industrial scenario." Rocca shared that "there can be no serious international economic policy without an understanding of the structure of the world order. In this scenario of a bipolar world, which is what so many of us see, affairs are being dominated by a strategic rivalry that will be with us for decades, perhaps even longer than the Cold War, as the U.S. and China lock horns in a never-ending trade dispute. It is vital to understand this context in order to implement development strategies. Argentina will have no more room to make mistakes, we are becoming more relevant than ever before, and the assertive gaze of the United States is going to be far more intense."