Both President Mauricio Macri’s government and entrepreneur associations are pushing in Congress for a series of new bills to be passed which they think will boost the private sector’s possibilities to create new businesses and become more competitive at home and abroad.

During a recent presentation at the Tecnopolis showgrounds, Macri, with Entrepreneurs and Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses Secretary Mariano Mayer, called for the approval of a legislative package including credit, training and simplified regulations for nascent firms.

The government is also looking to create 10 funds to raise capital during the next four years to finance new business projects, as part of a programme inspired by Israel’s state-sponsored startups, among others (Chile also has similar schemes).

Congressional sources says the bills could be discussed by the end of this month, although so far they have not been prioritized.

Plans include the use of seed capital, which finances the birth of new businesses, as well as business “incubators,” which help develop existing ones by providing cash, training, logistics and facilities.

The bills also authorize crowdfunding, which was previously all but ilegal in the country, according to CIPPEC’s Ezequiel Eliano, while also promoting initiatives with a positive “social and environmental” impact.

An example of the latter, Eliano said, would be the nascent project to facilitate recycling in electronics waste disposal.

One of the bills also promises a procedure that would let a firm register itself with the state in just one day, also opening its first bank account at a public or private bank as part of the same process.

Date: October 11, 2016