The Argentine Industrial Union (in Spanish, UIA) presented a bill to Congress aimed at cementing partnerships between local companies and the foreign capital investing in the country through the Large Investment Incentives Regime (RIGI), President Javier Milei’s flagship investment scheme.
While the RIGI includes a clause requiring that 20% of the purchases and contracts covered by the initial investment go to local companies, the rules don’t distinguish between goods and services.
That gap waters down the boost RIGI projects could give to local manufacturing, since the 20% threshold can be met through contracts that inevitably have to be carried out in the country regardless, like construction work or services.
Specifically, the UIA’s proposal is to clarify that the RIGI’s 20% minimum destined to local companies should apply exclusively to goods with local added value.
“If Argentina needs special regimes to attract investment, the underlying challenge is still to improve the conditions under which industry operates as a whole,” UIA president Martín Rappallini said at a meeting on Tuesday.
