As part of the inauguration of the Biodiversity and Environment Research Institute (INIBIOMA) in the city of Bariloche, province of Río Negro, the president Alberto Fernandez He did not pronounce himself in relation to the confrontation between the national government and the opposition over the judicial situation of Vice President Cristina Kirchner, but he did give the note at two points in his speech.
While highlighting the importance of the creation of the building in the city of Rio Negro, the president cited a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in which the spending of world powers on research and development was reviewed and he took the opportunity to joke with his ministers of Science and Technology, and Economy. “I was looking at a report from ECLAC… This is going to make Daniel (Filmus, who was by his side) happy and it’s going to make (Sergio) Massa worried”said President Fernández, which aroused some laughter among those present.
Immediately afterwards, he developed: “ECLAC indicates that the United States, the EU, the OECD countries and China have a level of spending on research and development relative to GDP of more than 2 percent. We enacted a law to finance science and technology education that proposes that this year we reach 0.31%… In 2015 we reached 0.37%, then it dropped to 0.22%, now we want to aspire to 0.31% and we hope that next year we will reach 0.34%. But what we have to get to is 2 percent, if we really want to be a country that pays attention to science and technology.”
Towards the end of his presentation, the president was involved in a confusion that caused a brief interruption by Minister Filmus. In his attempt to announce that he intended to declare Bariloche as the “national capital of science and technology”, he made a mistake and had to go back on his words. “And Bariloche, I am going to convert it before the end of the year into the national commission… into the national capital of… of science and technology”, advanced Fernández, who once again needed the dimensioning of Minister Filmus to round off his original idea. And when he realized how furious he was, he justified himself: “I already get so many commissions ‘commission’… I’m returning to Bariloche a science and technology commission… But well, that speaks of everything that Bariloche has grown ”.
During the act, Fernández was also accompanied by the governor of the province of Río Negro, Arabela Carreras; the municipal mayor of Bariloche, Gustavo Genusso; the president of CONICET, Ana Maria Franco; the rector of the National University of Comahue, Mary Beatrix Gentile; the director of INIBIOMA, Esteban Balseiro; and the aforementioned Minister Filmus.
“We are putting in value what is really important. We have many of the resources that the world demands for the future”, stressed President Fernández in his speech.
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