The Secretary of Transportation of the Nation, Diego Giuliano, asked the province of Tierra del Fuego for reports on Friday about the agreement that Governor Gustavo Melella seeks to sign with a Chinese company and that projects the creation of a port, an agrochemical plant and a power plant on the coast of Rio Grande.
In addition, as Clarín learned from very high sources, the Undersecretary of Ports, Waterways and Merchant Marine considered that project "technically unfeasible." In short, the government gave a thumbs down to the memorandum of understanding that Melella sent this week to the provincial Legislature and that generated a huge controversy.
The Governor introduced it just as the Minister of Economy, Agriculture and Production, Sergio Massa, was on an official trip to China. But since, but the wallet that Massa leads did not give him any signal to do so.
Clarín spoke with transportation sources and they pointed out the following.
That "on the alleged possibility" of construction, by the Chinese company Shaanxi Chemical Industry Group, of a port in the province of Tierra del Fuego, the Ministry of Economy sees this project "not likely".
That the reasons are that the project, in the first place, has "a negative environmental opinion", which represents "risks and negative consequences for the region and the community in general".
In addition, the place where they want to carry out the project, they said, is an international ecological reserve, precisely in the Estancia Las Violetas located in Rio Grande. That is, "the area could not be affected for these purposes."
It is worth remembering that the same government that is now in favor of the production of agrochemicals, in 2021 approved a ban on the development of salmon farms in the Beagle Channel area. "The sanction of this law is a clear and forceful institutional definition that highlights the importance for the people of Fueguino the protection and conservation of our natural resources, the genetic heritage of our living beings and their environment for sustainable economic development," said the provincial legislators of the ruling party.
Giuliano's team pointed out on Friday that if the project is analyzed, "serious inconsistencies of documentation presented a long time ago that precludes any type of possibility of advancing the project" can be extracted.
In the document released yesterday among different media such as Clarín, it is established that the company Shaanxi Chemical Group will invest US $ 1,250 million in the province for the construction of an industrial plant with an annual capacity of 600,000 tons of synthetic ammonia, 900,000 tons of urea and 100,000 tons of glyphosate.
This will involve the construction of a multipurpose port terminal with an internal enclosure, for the mooring of 20,000 ton vessels, that is, a Chinese port in Argentina, and a 100MW power plant.
At the same time they clarified that until today "there is no procedure (of the fuegian authorities) in force in this regard in the Undersecretariat of Ports, Waterways and Merchant Marine."
And they said that this was a vital requirement because it is the body that has, among other functions, those of coordinating the process of port authorizations and declarations for the execution of works in the port area, access channels to ports and waterways of national jurisdiction.
From the environment of Melella they were clearly annoyed by the dissemination of the details of the agreement with Shaanxi Group because it considers that "it threatens investments in that province. They also assured that there are "other companies" not Chinese interested in the project.
