Ervin Perez - Managing Director, Legacy Fund Ltd.
"So a brief overview was simply that we wanted to see how we got here with the superbond 3 and to show the comparisons between the different stages in the external debt. The other thing was to really emphasize that the challenges that we faced, even if given this opportunity in terms of a better cash profile with the debt, a lower interest rate, a shaving of the principal that we have a structural issue in the country and that has been the case for over the last 23 years where government administration after administration has spent more than they have taken in revenue and so they have to borrow and then as a country we have consumed more in imports than we have exported. So we have to barrow and those are called twin evils."

"When you combined those over a period of time you have to constantly borrow. Its juts like if you have your own home and you spent every single month more than you earn. What do you do? You have to go to a loan shark or you have to go to the bank and that monthly habit builds. So by the end of the year all the months that you have a home deficit, will add up in the level of debt that you have and what we are saying if we don't change structurally as country - this is beyond blue, red, UDP, PUP - any new party, if we don't make the structural changes as you've heard here from our audience - changes in terms of how regulators do business, in terms of the corporate sector, in terms of investment in education - if we don't do that, then we will be right back here 3 years from now worrying about we go to debt service and thinking about defaulting again."

"All of this has some bad challenges when it comes to our country and to our kids."

Reporter
"How beneficial is such an exercise in terms of educating the business community today?"

Ervin Perez
"This type of exercise. We have quarterly sessions with the chamber of commerce on what we think are important topics. We've gotten a lot of positive from that. I don't know if you guys recall, the last session we had, we were advocating that the government auction their securities in the domestic market so it's more market friendly and I can say that we have accomplish that. In the past the government would, through the Central Bank, there was no information on the auctioning of the securities. Currently, the treasury notes are now auction and the results of those action are put in the paper now."

"This might sound weird for the audience. How important is that? Well government debt in the domestic market is a measure of what corporate - what private sectors should be paying. So it sets a benchmark them. So it was very important for them to go there, especially when you are trying to seek efficiencies now, to have a benchmark. We and the chamber believes, I am speaking for myself here that these conversations are important, because not only do we want to express our ideas, but we want to hear from the private sector, from different stake holders what their thoughts are."

Perez mentioned that a meeting with the Economic Development Council has already been scheduled to go over the feedback received from the event, and to help pave the way forward.