MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Grand North Governors off on trade mission to the US

De Pedro and the governors will also visit public, private, and multilateral organizations, as well as some technological companies

Argentina's Interior Minister Wado De Pedro and governors of the Grand North Provinces are leaving Monday on a business trip to the United States in search of opportunities during meetings in Washington and New York.

The official delegation seeks to attract investors to help finance the development of the local resources and increase exports while boosting the productive, industrial, touristic and cultural potential of the region.

Argentina's Embassy in Washington is to hold a working meeting with the main think tanks of the United States to address “The potential of the Grand North in bilateral relations with the United States: energy, food security, mining, and electrical reconversion”.

The agenda will also include visits to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank, as well as meetings with members of Joseph Biden's administration, and also with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, in addition to businessmen and investors from the Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Americas.

US Ambassador to Argentina Marc Stanley will also be joining the mission in Washington, together with his Argentine counterpart in Washington DC, Jorge Jorge Argüello.

De Pedro and the governors will also visit public, private, and multilateral organizations, as well as some technological companies, with a special focus on cotton, lithium, and agricultural exports.

Chaco Governor [and former federal Cabinet Chief] Jorge Capitanich, said on Twitter that “the core of this mission is to finally materialize a financing agenda for the bioceanic corridor from a multiannual perspective with the participation of multilateral credit organizations” as well as “to promote more investments in different strategic productive complexes together with the dynamization of bilateral trade.”

Capitanich also explained that the mission ”has planned meetings with multilateral credit organizations (IDB-IBRD) under Article 86 of the National Budget Bill“, with the ”purpose of promoting financing in a 15-year period equivalent to 40% of the total agreed for the country in a specific program to be called Grand North“.

”This program aims at correcting severe asymmetries in integrated logistics and basic social infrastructure, which today constitute the main limitation for the development of the region and the country“, explained Capitanich, who added that ”without overcoming the logistic restriction, the region will not be able to overcome real bottlenecks to achieve systemic competitiveness.“

”During this year, the Regional Council of the Grand North has been able to carry out two international missions, to the United Arab Emirates and the United States,“ Capitanich added.

He also mentioned ”the first industrial, productive, gastronomic, tourist and cultural exhibition of the Grand North and at the same time the organization of the investment and foreign trade agency with the participation of the region in fairs and exhibitions in the country and abroad.”