Roundup: Argentine president highly comments on cooperation with China in dam building

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Saturday highly commented on cooperation with China in building two large dams in southern Argentina's Patagonia region after the arrival of a first shipment of construction equipment for the projects.

Earlier this week, 53 pieces of heavy machinery arrived in Punta Quilla, a port in the mouth of the Santa Cruz river, to build the Nestor Kirchner and Jorge Cepernic dams under agreements on cooperation in infrastructure construction between China and Argentina.

On Twitter, Fernandez pointed out that the dams, once built, should provide 1,740 megawatts of hydroelectric power for Argentina.

A second shipment of 62 additional pieces of machinery will arrive in September, to be followed by the turbines, floodgates and other equipment essential to operation of the hydroelectric complex.

Fernandez also said that these projects were becoming a reality thanks to the comprehensive strategic partnership established between China and Argentina, which she called an example for strategic relations around the world.

The equipment will now be unloaded and transported to two worksites, named La Enriqueta and Rincon Grande.

In February 2015, Chinese banks provided the first line of their financial support for the projects, worth 287 million U.S. dollars, which allowed for work to begin on building the camp sites and the initial infrastructure.

Since then, an additional credit of 150 million U.S. dollars was made available by the China Development Bank. The total credit to be received from China for the dams will reach 4.7 billion U.S. dollars.

The cooperation in building the two dams is based on a series of bilateral agreements signed by Fernandez and Chinese President Xi Jinping when the Argentine leader visited Beijing in February.

The construction of the dams is being carried out by a subsidiary of Chinese engineering and construction conglomerate Gezhouba Group.

The Argentinean Observatory for Energy, Technology, and Development Infrastructure (OETEC) celebrated the initiative, saying that the dams "would satisfy 4 percent of the national energy demand, equivalent to 1.5 million homes".

"They will save Argentina 1.2 billion dollars a year by replacing current imports of liquid natural gas," said Federico Bernal, director of OETEC.

"The deals signed with China will provide a great boost to Argentina's industrialization, its economic security and its energy independence," he added.

In a previous exclusive interview with Xinhua, Gerardo Ferreyra, vice-president of Argentine engineering giant Eling, emphasized that the dams were of great strategic importance, saying that "Argentina has to improve its energy matrix by creating a space for hydroelectric projects."

"On the one hand, we have resources that have never been explored. For example, the Santa Cruz river has never been tapped for hydroelectric power," he said.

"On the other hand, hydroelectric projects can replace fuel imports, which directly helps maintain resources within the Central Bank. Argentina spends 10 billion U.S. dollars or more a year on buying fuel sources," he explained. Endi