FEB. 1, 2020

President Piñera sets the priorities for 2020: the social agenda, public order, protecting jobs and the constitutional process

At the end of the second day of the Expanded Council of Ministers, the President emphasized increased pensions, the push to improve healthcare quality, higher income for the most vulnerable families and quality education.

This Saturday, President Sebastián Piñera set the following items as the Government’s objectives for 2020: making progress with the social agenda with a focus on improving pensions and healthcare, boosting employment and economic reactivation, public order and the constitutional process.
 
“We have made a major effort to better understand and comprehend what our fellow Chileans think, feel and want; to put ourselves in their shoes and share their problems and opportunities, their sorrows and joys, and their pain and hopes,” said the President at the end of the two-day Expanded Council of Ministers, in which ministers, undersecretaries and regional governors participated.
 
The President noted that the days were spent working with, “great humility and more attention on what our fellow Chileans have been saying.”
 
In that sense, the President prioritized the focal points of the Social Agenda.
 
The President highlighted the increase in pensions, which will benefit 1.6 million Chilean pensioners with an increase of up to 50%. This is in addition to plans to boost pensions for the middle class with greater individual and collective savings that will increase senior citizens’ current income by about 30%, with a further 30% in the future.
 
The President also emphasized the bill that aims to improve the quality of public healthcare by guaranteeing maximum wait times for non-AUGE illnesses, a Universal Health Plan, cutting the price of medications, setting up a catastrophic health insurance and eliminating preexisting conditions, as well as price differentials between men and women in the private healthcare (Isapre) system.
 
The President also promoted salary increases for the most vulnerable workers through a Guaranteed Minimum Income, which will benefit 670,000 people.
 
In fourth place, he spoke about improving the quality of education in the classroom, prioritizing early education and closing the gaps between different socioeconomic groups.
 
The President highlighted the defense of public order and social peace and issued a call for people to clearly and strongly condemn violence and those who advocate violence so as to return to the people of Chile the right to live their lives in freedom.
 
Remarking on the constitutional process, the President said that the administration will work to ensure it takes place in a peaceful, democratic and participative manner, providing complete guarantees to everyone in the plebiscite taking place in April of this year.
 
Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of protecting jobs, SMEs, the middle class and recovering the Chilean economy’s capacity for growth.
 
“This is our roadmap for 2020 and we will put our hearts and souls and all our best efforts into supporting and implementing it,” stressed the President.
 
The Council of Ministers began on Friday, with presentations by historian Lucía Santa Cruz, professor and entrepreneur Rodrigo Jordán and Executive Director of Norway’s Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue Alfredo Zamudio. These presentations were followed by working groups that focused on specific themes related to social, economic, institutional development and the quality of life.