The De La Rua Plan.

How BAD ARE CONDITIONS IN ARGENTINA? INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Nicolas Gallo compares the state of his country to Europe at the end of World War II, "We lack a Marshall plan," Gallo said in a national radio address, referring to the U.S. plan that helped rebuild Europe after the war. "Roads like the one from Rosario to Bahia Blanca are a disaster area with trucks crashing into each other all the time."

The tough talk was quickly followed with a solution: The De La Rua administration's four-year plan to invest US$12 billion to repair roads and upgrade ports, as well as to build houses and water treatment plants.

Despite Gallo's cheap shot, operators of recently privatized roadways were quickly reassured that the government's grand plan was not aimed at constructing highways to compete with their concessions but rather fixing old, secondary roads. Overall, the De La Rua plan does not seem so concerned with infrastructure as it is with creating jobs--some 250,000 permanent positions by the interior minister's count.

The government plans to get the bulk of the money for the projects from multilateral lenders. The World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have committed to $2.1 billion in loans and some $10 billion in loan guarantees.