In Colombia we are accustomed for years to talk about heritage impregnable. We got in the cloud that in any situation the assets of people remain undisturbed. A Christian is nothing to keep the public enterprises in state hands, restricting private interest in them and thus achieve impose ideological positions that sometimes accompanied usually return interesting popular support.
few days ago the Government announced a draft law that would authorize the sale of 9.9% of the shares you have in the largest company in Colombia, Ecopetrol, and the disposal of a percentage. That would reduce the state share to 70% and increase the participation of private and institutional shareholders in a company that costs 85 billion dollars. Obviously a play interesting and appealing to the debate.
Such a sale would give the government revenues of about U.S. $ 9 billion, ie, give up their shares in the company and transfer them to a new shareholders would represent a cash flow equivalent to a tax reform in a time substantially less, "opportunity cost?, good question. The opportunity cost of holding those shares would be calculated as the sum of future returns of these in a company increases its profits each year and is projected internationally as one of the largest oil companies. Future returns may offset the high costs of modernization that requires the company to sustain its expansion project.
For many, as the Colombian left to sell shares of the largest company is giving up a strategic asset available to the State. A heritage impregnable. But that view is framed by a single point of support that ignores what may be the opportunity cost of not selling some shares and give up the liquidity that could provide the government buying these. The Minister of Finance holds a theory that is not far-fetched: the government wants to sell shares to finance infrastructure projects in the country. Sell \u200b\u200bsome shares to raise resources for its construction, long-term certainly can provide social rates of return much higher than the state-owned conservation Oil Company.
High transportation costs determined by the country's poor road infrastructure, accented by a mono- transport mode that further restricts the movement of factors within, to and from the country pose a for urgent projects that are truly strategic to an economy like Colombia. The Government does not have the resources to promote and mismanagement of state in the management of concessions is even greater risks of unfortunate end as it has witnessed the Colombian public in recent months.
is essential, of course, correct those errors continued to characterize the recruitment of large infrastructure projects in Colombia. There is complete agreement, but in the Colombian context tangles appear contracts that ultimately end up acolytes all sorts of diversions during their implementation. Certainly the fear of some is unfounded: if not debug the procurement of major works and optimize the state management of infrastructure, 16 billion pesos that could be obtained from the sale of part of the government's actions in the run Ecopetrol danger of being squandered. Knight suggested Argaez well: the Colombian government not overwhelms the lack of resources but poor management.
Anyway what more must be understood is that the conservation of strategic state assets, often converted into national wealth, can not be a condition of force to prevent being an alternative to the pursuit of goals strategic to an economy like Colombia. Finance highways and transportation networks will bet on long-term strategic interests that can replace those earlier, more by ideology than real interest, we wanted to make sacred pieces.
0 comments:
Post a Comment