Minister of Science and Technology: Knowledge must be democratized

The axes of Governor Gustavo Valdés’ second consecutive term of office are development, modernization and inclusion. In this way, one of the ministries that will be strategic in implementing the government’s program is “Science and Technology”.

“It is a transversal ministry in the Council of Ministers: it can work with all issues in the development of projects and modernization of the state, as well as include all government areas in this path and society in general,” explained in this regard Minister Jorge. Gómez, who was appointed 15 days ago as the owner of that wallet.

The new official spoke with time regarding specific goals and the upcoming challenge. “Knowledge must be democratised,” said the head of the science and technology department.

Gomez is an accountant, he is 53 years old and hails from Itati. His wife, Rosana, has two daughters (Agostina, 22 and Lucilla, 19) and a son (Lucas, 16). “I have always devoted myself to my profession and six years ago I entered politics: I was a consultant at Itati for four years, from 2015 to 2019. Then, in 2020, I was appointed by the governor as Under-Secretary of Institutional Relations and now Minister.”

How were your early days as a minister?

We’re adjusting to the new role, we meet with the department staff and learn what (former Secretary Orlando) Macchio has done and how far he can go. But we are basically putting ourselves on the pivot for next year.

The family of the new minister from Etat.

Where do they point to?

The ministry has two functions: internally and externally. Within the state is to work transversally with all ministries, in constant search for training on new technologies that we can put at the service of the state and the people.

And from abroad also to support all businessmen and entrepreneurs in the province. Because the idea is also to technical as many women entrepreneurs as possible to be efficient in their productivity, which may improve the quality of work and salaries. Therefore, we must be responsible for continuous training.

For this, working with institutions in the environment is essential, right?

Without a doubt. To date, several agreements have been developed with Polo IT and from the very beginning with UNNE. We have to connect with other institutions that are developing in the province as well as at the national level, such as the Autonomous University of Buenos Aires, the Province of Córdoba, CONICET, INTA, INTI, and a myriad of organizations.

Is there a greater demand for knowledge and access to new technology?

What we can discover is that many people are eager to learn about technology and to learn.

So much so that this year’s program called Programadoras was put in place, which has been very successful. The idea is to keep launching those free courses so that the technology reaches as many people as possible at no cost.

Also developing work with municipalities and their digital poles.

Has the pandemic speeded up various technological processes, right?

exactly. When the pandemic hit, we realized that we had to speed up the knowledge of using technological tools to do our usual tasks. And in many cases, the pandemic has forced us to believe it.

In this scenario, the ministry that directs…

The good thing about this ministry is that it is transversal: we can work and coordinate with all ministries. So what we have to do is find and bring all the necessary technology closer.

Our ministry is not a team of scientists: we don’t have scientists investigating to discover something, but we must take existing technology and try to apply it in all the fields that require it.

And narrowing the digital knowledge gap is more practical, right?

Knowledge must be democratized. This is the idea of the ruler. And the way to do that is to make it available to people.

How does it align with technology?

regularly well. I am a certified public accountant, so I run different programs. All AFIP applications were already online, so we were working in this orbit. Anyway, I also had to make friends with her.