Businessman Guillermo Ferraro said during a radio interview Tuesday that he will be Javier Milei’s infrastructure minister. He claimed that the newly-formed ministry will oversee five sectors: transport, public works, energy, mining, and communications. 

“This ministry doesn’t exist currently; it’s part of a [general direction aimed at] rationalizing public spending,” Ferraro told Radio Mitre, adding that the state needs to “withdraw from the economy and give room to the private sector.”

Milei’s team has said that he will not formally announce his cabinet until his inauguration on December 10. Nonetheless, the President-elect said during interviews on Monday morning that lawyer Mariano Cúneo Libarona would be his future justice minister, Sandra Pettovello his minister of human capital, engineer Nicolás Posse his chief of staff, economist Diana Mondino his foreign minister, and deputy Carolina Píparo would lead the social security administration during his government. 

He also said that Vice President-elect Victoria Villarruel will be in charge of selecting the security and defense ministers, and has yet to say who his economy minister will be.

Of the five sectors included within the potential infrastructure ministry, transportation and public works are currently two separate ministries. Energy and mining are secretariats within the economy ministry, while communications is a secretariat that depends on the executive branch. 

Ferraro, who coordinated vote monitoring for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza coalition during the electoral process, is the former head of consulting firm KPMG Argentina. According to a resume on the website of his personal consulting firm, he is an accountant with a PhD in economics and postgraduate work in computer science. 

In the public sector, he worked in the Industry Secretariat between 2002 and 2003 during the Eduardo Duhalde presidency. He was also Deputy Secretary of Information and Telecommunications in the Buenos Aires provincial government between 1988 and 1991. 

“We will try to direct, stimulate, and encourage the private sector to invest […] The country is 20 years behind in infrastructure, and the investment required to get things up to speed amounts to 15 points of the GDP, something the public sector cannot possibly do,” Ferraro said. 

–Télam/Herald