Correo Argentino to stay in state hands

The Argentine government will keep postal service Correo Argentino under state control, reversing an earlier plan to re-privatize the company, Planning Minister Julio De Vido said Friday. “At this time (re-privatization) is not being considered because of the excellent management that’s being carried out and, fundamentally, because of the results,” De Vido said at a presentation of the company’s 2004 revenues, according to a press release from the presidential office. “Argentina, in recent decades, abandoned expansion in infrastructure … We are very behind, something that is not a problem of this government. There was here a concrete lack of investment in specific areas … in the last 20 years.” Correo Argentino became the world’s first fully privatized postal service in 1997 and controls upward of 40% of the country’s postal market.