The Argentine government has signed four separate agreements with top Chinese construction firms to modernize and upgrade its national rail infrastructure for a total value of $4.7 billion. As a policy of state, President Alberto Fernández is actively seeking to strengthen his nation’s strategic alliance with China to assist in national economic development. He is planning to join the Belt and Road Initiative when he travels to China for a state visit next May, and is now also proposing that Argentina become the next member of the BRICS group of nations, which now consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
The companies with which the government has signed agreements are China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd., (CRCC), China Machinery Engineering Corp.(CMEC), CRCC Corporation Limited and Yutong. These agreements will allow for the modernization of the Belgrano Cargas freight line, the San Martin Cargas freight line which traverses five agriculturally important provinces, providing rolling stock for passenger trains in Metropolitan Buenos Aires as well as for the transportation systems of 13 provinces, and connecting the westernmost province of Mendoza, on the border with Chile, with the crucial ports of Rosario and Buenos Aires on the east coast. Financing for the construction of the southern branch of the North Patagonian railroad is also included in the agreements, which will greatly benefit the province of Buenos Aires and the five provinces located in that part of Patagonia.
