Thursday April 13, 2023 | 6:18 p.m.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, agreed on Thursday the first investment for Argentina from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD, for its acronym in English) for US$500 million dollars. The signature was given within the framework of the tour that the head of the Treasury leads in Washington, where he will participate in the Spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
🇦🇷🇸🇦 Together with Sultan Abdulrahman Al Marshad, CEO of the Saudi Development Fund, we signed an agreement through which they will make an investment for infrastructure in our country for the first time for 500 million dollars. pic.twitter.com/qcGRaxJ3fr
— Sergio Massa (@SergioMassa) April 13, 2023F
The agreement was reached after a meeting that the head of the Palace of Finance had with Sultan bin Abdulrahman Al-Marshad, on his first day in the US capital. In January, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Argentina, Hussein M. Alassiri, had advanced to the Argentine minister and foreign minister, Santiago Cafiero, his country’s interest in making the investment.
Barely four months after that moment, Massa and Abdulrahman Al-Marshad, CEO of the Saudi Fund, sealed the deal and announced that the disbursement will go to the health, food and energy sectors, as planned.
Among the projects, the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline and the financing of electrical transmission lines stand out, as well as provincial Sovereign Guaranteed developments.
Both also agreed on the importance of continuing to strengthen the friendly and supportive relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Argentine Republic, as well as constructive cooperation for development between the two countries.
The announcement was made within the framework of the negotiations that the head of the Palace of Finance has been carrying out with the Saudi government. At the beginning of the year, officials from the Saudi Fund for Development visited our country and held meetings for more than a week with the Secretary of Energy Flavia Royón, the Secretary of International Economic and Financial Relations Marco Lavagna, the Secretary of Development Planning and the Federal Competitiveness, Jorge Neme, the Secretary of Public Works, Carlos Rodríguez.
The representatives of the SFD arrived in Buenos Aires at that time to learn about the requirements and agree on funding priorities for strategic projects in Argentina. Finally, this Thursday in Washington the representatives of both countries signed the agreement for the arrival of new investments, in a complex context for the country in which the BCRA continues to suffer the loss of reserves.
The disbursement of US$500 million for infrastructure works is the first investment of the Saudi Fund for Development in Argentina. Since 1975, the year it began its operations, the SFD has financed more than 650 projects. The average investment per initiative is US$25.2 million.
It is not the first time that Massa has met with Saudi authorities. In 2021, during his tenure as head of the Chamber of Deputies, he received Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, in Congress. At that time, they discussed the possibility of investment from that country in productive sectors.
In addition to agreeing with the SFD, Massa also held a meeting with the Saudi Arabian Finance Minister, Mohammed al-Jadaan, in the framework of the G20 meetings, with whom he had already held a meeting in the framework of the summit held in India in February, where negotiations began.
Along with the negotiations with the Saudi fund, the Argentine authorities held a meeting with authorities from Eximbank, the US export credit agency, in order to unlock financing for the purchase of the tubes for the construction of the second section. of the Néstor Kirchner and La Carlota-Tío Pujio pipeline.
