The strategy of The Pampa to be the vanguard of resistance to the regime Javier Milei added a chapter of very high political and symbolic weight that the province also hopes will have its commercial correlate: the governor Sergio Ziliotto rolled out a red carpet for a trade mission from China which landed with high institutional volume and representation of large companies.
As if they were one heart, the province and the Asian giant hugged each other for photos, exchanged information and planned future meetings and businesses. Contrary to the decided libertarian cooling, Ziliotto effusively greeted the ambassador’s landing Wang Wei and put his cabinet to work to give the best welcome to firms like Huawei, GoldWing, LiuGong, ICBC and Shanghai Electric Power.
A look from China on the clean energies of La Pampa
Expectation triggers short, medium and long-term objectives. The Ziliotista management is committed to activating clean energy, a policy that marks a difference with the governments that preceded today’s Peronism. For this reason, the Chinese delegation went to Victorica, a town located 180 kilometers northwest of the capital of the Pampas, where the province has a kind of Photovoltaic Park model that it plans to extend, but for which it needs investments.
The current context, it is no secret, demands urgency: the Pampas government is dealing with the legislative opposition to obtain a temporary tax that will allow it to face the food emergency of 22,500 families, after the Milei adjustments and against a national government debt that exceeds $30,000 million for different concepts.
In this framework, Ziliotto tries to look a little further and bet on seducing eastern capitals. The Chinese delegation, always smiling, quietly accepted before leaving that their main investment interest is concentrated in the energy market, where Ziliotto’s management has had disagreements and clashes with companies and also with political actors more trained in the era of pure oil.
CITIA: bet on innovation in La Pampa
The other magic words that came out of the Chinese delegation’s mouths referred to “scientific innovation.” That is another scenario in which La Pampa began to play in recent years, especially since the construction of a Technological Pole in the second city of the province, General Pico, and the creation of the Pampas Agency for Sciences, Technology and Open Innovation (CITIA).
The governor brought into play the organizations that are not a direct part of the Executive, but that are its core of ideas and production policies. That is why the Foreign Trade Agency, which commands Sebastian Lastirithe energy company Pampetrol led by the Secretary of Energy Matias Toso and the president Maria Rovedathe Banco de La Pampa whose owner is Alexis Iviglia and who heads the Pico Free Trade Zone, German Luqui.
The free zone was offered as a strategic settlement point for Chinese capital. There are special benefits for activities that require imported inputs; tax and logistical advantages.
The companies that were in La Pampa are Shanghai Electric Power, which has large-scale energy infrastructure projects; Huawei, world leader in technology and telecommunications; Goldwind, one of the world’s leading wind energy companies; LiuGong, a construction machinery manufacturing giant, and ICBC, the world’s largest bank by assets.
Sergio Ziliotto, “the beloved governor”
The Asian ambassador called Ziliotto “the dear Governor Sergio” at the time of putting the “energy transition” and the “modernization process” in the foreground. They also went out of their way to praise other characteristics of the “pampeanidad”: from the simplicity of the people with whom they had to connect to the spectacular nature of the region’s skies were on the agenda.
There are more traditional issues with immediate impact: China wants food, La Pampa offers it. In that sense, the province’s meats have international fame as the best in the country and there is a large territory capable of supplying oilseeds to the masses.
Ziliotto insisted on his expectation of “facilitating exchange and complementing potential.” The ambassador released words that were music to the ears of La Pampa: “China is fully willing to accompany the commercial and production diversification process, to explore more possibilities of cooperation and increase our productive capacities.”
There were hugs, selfiesphotos on social networks and good vibes: La Pampa and China closed their day of meeting by sending messages to their hearts, but also waiting for answers in their pockets.
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