Welcome, Vice President Biden

Published in El Periódico
(Guatemala) on 2 March 2015
by Juan Carlos Zapata (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Miken Trogdon. Edited by Stephen Proctor.
His visit is a positive political message to promote projects that create jobs.

Today Joe Biden, vice president of the U.S., lands at La Aurora Airport. The last time he was in Guatemala was nine months ago, in June of last year. I, along with other representatives of civil society, had the pleasant opportunity to meet with him on that occasion, and it was an interesting conversation. Mr. Biden is a man who understands the importance of institutions facilitating formal job creation in departments that our countrymen are emigrating from, so he recognizes the importance of working hand in hand with the private sector.

The Allied Plan for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle presents a challenge to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras not only to create integration mechanisms, collaboration and significant effort to be able to land a plan that has enough capability to incentivize the private sector to become more interested in investing in those municipalities that migrants are leaving, but also to analyze the factors that have shown it’s currently not economically feasible to open a business in these areas (for diverse reasons such as lack of infrastructure, poor telephonic connection, low capability of human resources, little presence from state institutions and deficient health services).

Vice President Biden’s visit comes at a critical moment for this country, which finds itself on the brink of officially starting its electoral campaign, where candidates and their teams should integrate into their governing plans the actions that will help generate more employment in the country and continue reducing insecurity.

When we see the positive effects that have occurred in other countries that have received these types of initiatives from the U.S. (like the Colombia Plan, or the Marshall Plan in Europe’s case), not only crucial are the resources to be gained, but also the dynamic of cooperation among different institutions that are created to work together with the same objective based on unified guidelines. The good news is that we already have tools like the Local Competitiveness Index that evaluates the capability of municipalities to create formal jobs, a mechanism that establishes priorities for cooperation and helps demonstrate, with technical data, which are the most important challenges to being able to establish priorities toward public policy workings that help focus on investment. Again, welcome Vice President Biden; we hope that your visit is very beneficial to the region.


Bienvenido vicepresidente Biden
Su visita es un mensaje político positivo para impulsar proyectos que generen empleos.
Hoy aterriza en el aeropuerto La Aurora el vicepresidente de los Estados Unidos, Joseph Biden. La última vez que estuvo en Guatemala fue hace menos de nueve meses, en junio del año pasado. Tuve la grata oportunidad de reunirme con él en esa ocasión con otros representantes de la sociedad civil y fue una plática por demás interesante. El señor Biden es un hombre que entiende la importancia de que las instituciones faciliten la generación de empleos formales en los departamentos de donde están migrando nuestros compatriotas, por lo que reconoce la importancia de trabajar de la mano con el sector privado.

El Plan de la Alianza para la Prosperidad del Triángulo Norte (PAPTN), representa un reto para Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras de generar mecanismos de integración, colaboración conjunta y un esfuerzo importante para poder aterrizar un plan que tenga la suficiente capacidad de incentivar a que el sector privado pueda interesarse más en invertir en los municipios de donde están saliendo los migrantes, sino analizar los factores que han evitado que en estos momentos no sea económicamente factible abrir una empresa formal en esos departamentos (por diversas razones como lo son: la falta de infraestructura, poca conectividad telefónica, baja capacidad del recurso humano, poca presencia de instituciones del Estado y servicios de salud deficientes).

La visita del vicepresidente Biden viene en un momento crítico para el país, que se encuentra a punto de iniciar oficialmente la campaña electoral, en donde los precandidatos y sus equipos deben integrar en sus planes de gobierno, las acciones que ayuden a generar más empleos formales en el país y continuar reduciendo la inseguridad.

Cuando vemos los efectos positivos que han ocurrido en otros países que han recibido este tipo de iniciativas de parte de los Estados Unidos como el Plan Marshall en el caso de Europa, o el propio Plan Colombia, no es solo crucial los recursos que se puedan aportar, sino la dinámica de cooperación entre diferentes instituciones que se comienza a generar para poder trabajar juntos con un mismo objetivo, con base en métricas unificadas. Lo bueno es que ya tenemos herramientas como el Índice de Competitividad Local (ICL) que evalúa la capacidad de los municipios para generar empleos formales, un mecanismo que permite establecer prioridades para la cooperación y que ayuda a demostrar con datos técnicos, cuáles son los retos más importantes para poder establecer prioridades hacia mecanismos de política pública que ayuden a focalizar la inversión. Bienvenido nuevamente vicepresidente Biden, esperamos que su visita sea muy provechosa para la región.
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