MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China will finance Argentine infrastructure

China announced Tuesday in Buenos Aires that it intends to invest 19,7 billion US dollars in Argentina over the next decade with the money going mainly into infrastructure projects and home building.

The announcement of the trade and investment deals was made during the first of the two days visits of Chinese president Hu Jintao to Argentina.

"We will widen the channels of cooperation ... in agriculture, industry, mining and infrastructure" said Chinese President Hu Jintao after a full hour's meeting with Argentine president Nestor Kirchner in Casa Rosada. China is Argentina's fourth trade partner behind Chile, Brazil and the United States, and officials said that bilateral trade is forecasted to grow 10% in 2004, reaching 3.5 billion US dollars.

Last June President Kirchner visited China when apparently talks for the 20 billion US dollars trade and investment deal began.

Some eight billion US dollars is earmarked for railways electrification, a fast train to Ezeiza airport and expanding the metropolitan passenger rail system. Another six billion US dollars will be invested in the construction of 300,000 homes in a five year period and five billion over the five next years to promote hydrocarbons exploration and production. Finally the package includes 450 million US dollars in telecommunications and 260 million in space technology development. Agreements covering education and tourism were also signed.

President Hu Jintao before arriving in Buenos Aires spent five days in Brazil where he announced China's plans to invest 100 billion US dollars in Latin America over the next ten years with the purpose of ensuring a sustainable long term supply of commodities and energy for its ever expanding economy.

On the diplomatic front Beijing is pressing for a "market economy" international recognition which China sees as an important step towards getting better trade terms from the World Trade Organisation.

Most of China's neighbours such as Australia and New Zealand have recognized this condition and so has now Brazil which in exchange received greater access to China's market for chicken and beef products. The beef deal alone is expected to be worth $600m a year for Brazil, ministers said. It also gained a commitment from China to order at least 10 aircrafts from Brazilian maker Embraer. To facilitate trade, the Chinese have also offered Brazil 5 billion US dollars and 7 billion US dollars investments to improve the country's roads, railways and ports system.

President Hu Jintao this Wednesday flies to Bariloche in Argentine Patagonia for a day's visit and on Thursday will travel to Chile for the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Santiago.