The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, had its first day of meetings in Shanghai and managed to close investment projects and disbursements from Chinese companies for almost 1,000 million pesos. The head of the Palacio de Hacienda expressed the importance of the arrival of funds to alleviate the reserves of the Central Bank in the short term, but this also serves to improve future development.
The amount obtained during the first day of the visit by the national official and his team will be destined for the Jorge Cepernic dam in the province of Santa Cruz (524 million dollars by the Chinese group Ghezouba), treatment plants for the state firm AYSA in the towns Laferrere and El Jagüel from Buenos Aires (also from the Ghezouba group, about 70 million dollars), electricity distribution in the AMBA (by State Grid, 330 million dollars will be allocated).
“Today is a good day, because we are advancing not only in disbursements that in the short term alleviate our reserves, but also, in the long term, they fix electricity for eight million people, water and sewage for 1,600,000 people,” Massa announced.
Another important focus of the first day was his meeting with the Power China company for the tender for the second section of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, which will take place in August. The first section will be inaugurated on June 20.
The last meeting of the day with the Ghezouba Group was to verify the state of execution of the Jorge Cepernic and Néstor Kirchner dams, in Santa Cruz. They talked about how to resume financing from China, and a technical report that will ratify the feasibility of the project after the appearance of a geological fault.
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In relation to the dams, Máximo Kirchner highlighted what they will mean once completed and estimated that the project “will allow Argentina to substantially expand the hydroelectric generation park” by incorporating “more than 1,300 MW of power.”
This will guarantee “the diversification of the local energy matrix, contributing clean generation to the Argentine interconnection system,” added the head of the Buenos Aires PJ in statements to the press.
“The agreements and exchanges made on this trip will ensure the pace of execution of the work in order to meet the expected completion dates,” stressed Máximo Kirchner.
The works of the dams, which are carried out in the Condor Cliff and Barrancosa areas, occupied an important part of the agenda of the day, along with other priority issues, such as the renewal and extension of the currency agreement (swap) with the giant Asian.
Another crucial issue is the “legal and operational” strategy that the BRICS financial entity, the New Development Bank, could adopt to support Argentina.
In the procession headed by Massa, they are evaluating the alternatives that the New Development Bank (NBD) could use to strengthen the country, via reserve funds that could serve as a guarantee for trade in local currency with Brazil, so that the Argentine Central Bank does not have to part with dollars.
In the delegation, they do not seem so convinced of the proposal of Luiz Inácio “Lula” Da Silva to modify article 7 of the NDB constitution act, according to what its main members trust.
Another option under analysis would be the possibility of using a capital contribution from the NDB to finance the development of projects in a third country that is part of the group and that is interested in collaborating with Argentina.
These issues will be discussed by Massa and Dilma Rousseff, the president of the NBD, in a meeting that both will hold on Thursday.