The outgoing head of the Central Bank, Mario Marcel, outlined the role he will play as Minister of Finance of the President-elect, Gabriel Boric, who presented today the first cabinet that will accompany him since March 11 in the Government.
The economist did not attend this morning’s ceremony because he is serving quarantine as close contact of a person infected with coronavirus. For this reason, this afternoon he spoke for the first time as the confirmed head of the Treasury through a public statement.
There he explained that, “according to what was discussed with the President, My specific role will be to help create the economic, financial and operational conditions so that the commitments established with the citizens can be fulfilled.“.
Along these lines, he stressed that Boric “has indicated that he understands that this requires advancing step by step, with dialogue and fiscal responsibility, but also with decision, ensuring the legitimacy and sustainability of the changes”.
Mario Marcel: “According to what was discussed with the Pdte, my role will be to help create the conditions
economic, financial and operational so that commitments to citizenship are
they can comply. Pdte has indicated that he understands that this requires advancing step by step” @Cooperative pic.twitter.com/wdbT8njcKQ– Valentina Godoy B (@valegodoyb) January 21, 2022
Along with thanking the President-elect for his confidence, he stressed that the announced ministers “make up a committed, diverse and competent team” and anticipated that the cabinet “will have the enormous responsibility of responding to the wishes and hopes of a better country, expressed by citizens and citizens, not only on the election day of December 19, but throughout many years”.
“For this -he emphasized-, President Boric has committed important reforms in matters of health, pensions, taxes, productive development, decentralization, environment, gender perspective, diversity and decent work, among others, reflected in the government program and the programmatic implementation commitment”.
Marcel already committed all his “energy and experience”, with “the conviction that, if we all cooperate to make the changes that the country longs for, we will surely have a positive-sum game.”
“For this purpose We will form a competent team in the Ministry of Finance, capable of providing evidence, creativity and capacity for dialogue to complete an orderly way out of the crisis that the country has experienced in recent years, reduce uncertainty in the economy, generate the resources and capacities required to implement the government’s agenda, control the growth of public debt and lay the foundations for sustained and sustainable growth in the coming years,” he also promised.
Marcel, close to the Socialist Party, has been a powerful concertacionista figure, since between 2000 and 2006 he served as Director of Budgets in the Government of Ricardo Lagos and, later, he was president of the Presidential Advisory Council for Pension Reform during the first Government of Michelle Bachelet.
In 2015 he joined the Central Bank as a director and since 2016 he has served as president of the issuing institute. Just a few months ago, in October 2021, the outgoing President, Sebastián Piñera, had ratified in office for another five-year term, but Marcel presented his resignation yesterday, Thursday, which will materialize on January 27, to pass to the new Government from March.
COMMUNIST PARTY AVOID COMMENTING ON APPOINTMENT
As head of the issuing institute, whose job it is to keep inflation under control, he was detractor of the three pension savings withdrawals that Congress approved between 2020 and 2021, as a measure of economic aid for families in the face of the crises derived from the Covid-19 pandemic.
That position earned him questions from I Approve Dignity, the coalition of the next Government, mainly from the Communist Party.
Asked today about the appointment of Marcel in the Treasury, the helmsman of the PC, William Teillier, said he did not know him personally and avoided commenting on ministers from other parties.
Later, the also communist Camila Vallejo, who will assume the General Secretariat of Government, pointed out that will try to get together for coffee with Marcel.
However, he stressed that “we have a team with a high commitment to the program that the people of Chile have mandated to develop over the next four years; and all those who were presented today – whether or not they were physically present – have made that commitment“.
“Some they probably don’t know each other personally yet, but there will be plenty of time and opportunities for that, especially with the main challenge of getting to know each other at work, going ‘perspective’ and outlining the lines of action, excuse the redundancy, but the central and fundamental thing is the full conviction and unrestricted commitment to carry out the program”, he commented .