Buenos Aires, January 25, 2026 (NA) – Economist and former Syngenta CEO Antonio Aracre backed the Labor Modernization Project promoted by President Javier Milei's administration, stating that Argentina “has not grown in 20 years.” In an interview with Radio Rivadavia, he noted that the path outlined by the National Government will help small and medium-sized business owners because, although there are “6 million registered private jobs,” there are simultaneously “8 million people in the informal sector” due to the lack of economic growth in the country. “Argentina has not grown for 20 years, and that has to do with a lack of productivity. Above all, with the macroeconomic stabilization carried out over the last two years,” Aracre indicated, according to the Argentine News Agency. Furthermore, he highlighted that these 8 million people “who do not contribute” to have a pension in the future or social security “do not give sustainability to the pension system” and negatively impact pensions, making them so that “they do not have the value they should for a retiree to live reasonably.” “How to get these 8 million people in the informal sector to start contributing is the main function of this labor reform project. Many people say that (this project) will not generate employment because it is generated with economic growth, and yes… new employment is generated with economic growth, but there are many companies that function reasonably well and, nevertheless, have 8 million people in the informal sector because formalizing them implies a cost and a risk unviable for an SME,” explained the economist. To conclude, he stated that the Labor Modernization Project aims to ensure there is no “legal or public risk of facing national authorities for having people in the informal sector with a really very low cost and a minimum risk of litigation.” “The unions in Argentina have traditionally put on the shirt of defending the 6 million workers in the formal sector, and I am not saying that is wrong, but they leave the 8 million who are in the informal sector,” he concluded. This is what we are aiming for with labor reform, tax reform, and later, with pension reform.
