Luis Caputo: “We need to invest in human capital to gain competitiveness”
October 13, 2017
The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, as Governor before the World Bank, participated in the “Human Capital Summit: Committing to Action to Drive Economic Growth”, one of the main events of the WB Annual Meetings, where world leaders commit themselves to adopt measures and drive economic growth.
After the keynote address given by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, Mr. Minister said: “We firmly believe that investing in human capital is key to improve people’s quality of life and wellbeing as it lays the foundation for innovation, competitiveness and growth” and he added: “we need to invest in human capital to gain competitiveness”.
“An educated, healthy and competitive labor force is a country’s most important asset to tackle the current challenges brought about by globalization and to respond to the citizenry demand for quality jobs”, Caputo explained.
In this sense, Mr. Minister talked about the recent launch of the Universal Social Insurance Plan which will provide coverage to 15 million people.
In addition, Caputo highlighted the importance of financial inclusion: “Financial inclusion is crucial to human capital development. We see it as a strategic tool to tackle the informal economy by expanding access to banking services and cutting interest rates for the most vulnerable segments of the population”, he said.
The Minister of Finance anticipated that human capital will be one of the main issues to address during Argentina’s G20 Presidency, specifically the future of labor.
Finally, Caputo highlighted that Argentina commits itself to invest in human capital and to guarantee that said investment yields its benefits. “In this regard, the World Bank Group has been a strategic partner in our pursuit for constant development, working closely in areas such as infrastructure, health, education and SMEs financing”, Mr. Minister said.
The following officials also attended the panel: the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, Amdou Gon Coulibaly; the Minister of Finance of Indonesia, Sry Mulyani Indrawati; the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, the Secretary of State for International Development of the UK, Priti Patel; the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, Lilianne Ploumen; and the State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tone Skogen. The panel was moderated by BBC journalist Lerato Mbele.
During the whole day, Mr. Minister and his officials held meetings with investors and bank representatives.