Roberto Lavagna
PEOPLE PROFILE is published every Tuesday and describes the professional background of key people emerging in the political and economic scenario.
Who is Roberto Lavagna?
Roberto Lavagna is Argentina's economy minister. He has held this position since
the provisional presidency of Eduardo Duhalde, who named him to succeed Jorge
Remes Lenicov at the peak of the political and financial crisis that gripped
Argentina in 2002. He was confirmed in his post by newly-elected President Néstor
Kirchner in May. He is the most powerful figure in the cabinet.
Why watch him?
He is charged with renegotiating the biggest default in history. Argentina stopped
its external debt repayments in December 2001 during the short-lived presidency
of Adolfo Rodríguez Saa, starting up again 20 months later, on 22 September
2003, when it formally proposed the restructuring to international creditors.
Lavagna, who has led two tough rounds of negotiations with the IMF over debts
of more than US$25bn with the Fund, now has to focus all his energy into getting
an agreement with furious international creditors, to whom Argentina owes another
US$75bn. Argentina's readmittance to the hallowed world of international finance
hangs upon the success of these renegotiations.
The File
Born: March 24, 1942.
Place of birth: Buenos Aires.
Education:
Degree in economics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Doctorate in econometrics
and economic policy from the University of Brussels.
Public life:
He was secretary of industry and foreign trade before the military dictatorship.
He returned to this post in the first democratic government after the 1976 to
1983 dictatorship, that of Raúl Alfonsín. He founded a private
economic consultancy firm, Ecolatina, oriented around research and development
of industrial policies.
Timeline
1973-1975 During the administrations of former presidents Héctor Campora
and Juan Domingo Perón (in his third term of office), he was director
of prices at the trade secretariat.
1975 Founded the economic consultancy, Ecolatina.
1983-1989 Secretary of industry and foreign trade.
1986 In the international sphere he directed the Argentine delegation at the
GATT round of talks.
1986 He defined, designed and implemented the strategic integration accords
with Brazil.
1989 Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Director of teaching, specialising
in regional integration and Mercosur. Area coordinator in economics at the Sorbonne
and the Universidad del Salvador. Member of the directorship of the Consejo
Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (Cari) and the Instituto de Desarrollo
Económico y Social (Ides).
1995 Worked as an invited researcher at Harvard University.
1999-2002 President Fernando De la Rúa named him Argentina's Ambassador
to the European Union.
2002- 2003 Economy minister under Presidents Eduardo Duhalde and incumbent Néstor
Kirchner.
Strong points
He demonstrated considerable aptitude for negotiating in 2002 after closing
an almost impossible agreement that prevented Argentina from falling into default
with the IMF, the World Bank and the IDB. He repeated this success over the
last few weeks when he cemented a three-year US$21bn debt deal with the IMF.
He is a key ally of President Kirchner and has full public backing. He favours
an active role for the state in the economy, rather different from the neoliberal
dogma espoused by his predecessors since the early 1990s.
Weak points
He has a strong personality that has already led him into confrontations with
Kirchner, who, in contrast to his predecessor, Eduardo Duhalde, is very hands-on.
During the recent negotiations with the IMF, Lavagna was on the verge of resigning
because of Kirchner's rejection of some of the economy ministry's proposals.
In the next few months, Lavagna must kickstart negotiations with external creditors
and steer the economy, which is yet to take-off after the disastrous recession
of 1998/2002.
Prospects
Despite his threats to resign over Kirchner's interference in the recent IMF
talks, Lavagna is likely to stay put. Kirchner is well aware that he is his
most respected minister and he owes a large part of his electoral success to
his decision to keep on Lavagna as economy minister. Lavagna is highly critical
of the 10 years of convertibility but he is far from against free market economics
like other ministers in the president's confidence, such as Julio De Vido, minister
of planning and infrastructure. If the negotiations with creditors are a success
and the economy either maintains or improves upon its current growth signs,
Lavagna will be Kirchner's most prized possession by far.