AMBASSADOR WAYNE VISITS CORDOBA, ARGENTINA'S

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000232 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR WHA/BSC AND WHA/EPSC USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/OLAC/PEACHER USDOC FOR 3134/USFCS/OIO/WH/MKESHISHIAN USDOC FOR 4320/ITA/MAC/WH/DAS/WMBASTIAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD BESP AR SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR WAYNE VISITS CORDOBA, ARGENTINA'S SECOND CITY REF: BUENOS AIRES 02580 ¶1. (U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified, and not for Internet distribution. -------------- Summary -------------- ¶2. (U) Ambassador Wayne used a two-day trip to Cordoba, widely considered Argentina's second city, to build ties with provincial administrators, U.S. companies operating locally, cultural and scientific leaders, youth and NGOs, and the local media. The ambassador concentrated on four themes throughout the trip: He stressed to his audiences the value of establishing and maintaining a positive investment climate; he encouraged and praised U.S. companies that exhibit social responsibility; he reminded interlocutors of the longstanding and mutually beneficial cultural and scientific ties between the U.S. and Argentina; and he demonstrated by example the importance of transparency in government. Outreach highlights included a visit to a food distribution project for poor children run by Caritas and Wal-Mart and a meeting with Junior Achievement leaders. End Summary. -------------- The Trip -------------- ¶3. (U) The ambassador fit twelve distinct events into the February 1-2 trip. In chronological order, he visited a Motorola software development center; met with local young people involved with Junior Achievement; had lunch with AMCHAM Cordoba (companies represented included Apex, EDS, Intel, Lockheed Martin, LG&E International, Motorola, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, RAR Autoparts, Sheraton, Prudential, and Wal-Mart); visited a noted observatory co-founded in the nineteenth century by a U.S. citizen scientist; participated in a Wal-Mart-sponsored food and toy distribution at a local center for underprivileged children managed by Caritas; exchanged views with University of Cordoba officials; visited the IICANA bi-national English language center to meet with students and U.S. grantees; dined with the governor of Cordoba; held a sit-down with local media editors and owners; called on Cordoba's mayor; visited Argentina's primary satellite control facility; and toured the Lockheed Martin aircraft production and maintenance facility. -------------- -------------- Emphasizing the Importance of a Good Investment Climate -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Ambassador met with Cordoba governor Jose Manuel De la Sota, whose mandate expires this year, and also with the two frontrunners to succeed him, and used those meetings to stress the importance of and advantages accruing from a good investment climate. During dinner February 1 with De la Sota and vice governor Juan Schiaretti, who is running to replace De la Sota, and during a February 2 meeting with Cordoba mayor Luis Alfredo Juez, another contender for governor, Ambassador Wayne urged the provincial officials to address concerns voiced during the ambassador's earlier meetings with U.S. companies. ¶5. (SBU) Several of the companies with which the ambassador had met had praised the De la Sota administration's use of incentives to attract U.S. technology companies to Cordoba, which has spurred Cordoba's status as a burgeoning high-tech center. All the U.S. companies speaking to the ambassador characterized the governor and his administration as business-friendly. Two of the U.S. company subsidiaries have already achieved world class results in their Cordoba operations. The news was not all good, however, with some of the same companies complaining that some of the promised incentives had not yet been delivered. Those companies also cited structural problems that limit the local economy's ability to produce sufficient numbers of adequately trained or skilled human resources. ¶6. (SBU) The ambassador raised those concerns with De la Sota and Schiaretti, who agreed on the importance of improving provincial education and of establishing a legible and transparent operating framework for businesses. They also explained in detail their hopes to build stronger economic and educational ties with the U.S., and to seek law enforcement training for provincial security forces. Mayor Juez, De la Sota's political rival, had received less positive marks from the U.S. business community. In keeping with that assessment, Juez appeared less enthusiastic than the governor had been when asked about taking steps to improve Cordoba's investment climate. Instead, most of the formal meeting Juez hosted for Ambassador Wayne was taken up by the reading of a lengthy proclamation naming the ambassador an honored guest of the city, and by the mayor's joking attempts to cadge a statement of support for his candidacy for governor from the ambassador. The mayor did, however, stress the importance of building a strong sister city relationship wiht Atlanta, including university level ties. -------------- -------------- Lauding Examples of U.S. Corporate Responsibility -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) Ambassador Wayne emphasized the importance of corporations acting as responsible members of the community in all of his interactions with U.S. corporate representatives in Cordoba. Local U.S. companies appear to be taking those responsibilities seriously, and the ambassador heard a number of inspiring stories about company commitments to educational, nutritional, and environmental campaigns. Some stories told of an astonishing degree of community social responsibility. For example, Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina President Alberto Buthet told the ambassador that his company had continued to pay wages and benefits to 1,100 workers for over a year during Argentina's 2001-2001 economic crisis, despite having no contract. ¶8. (U) With U.S. companies providing such a positive example, the ambassador took pains to cite their good works to each of his Argentine interlocutors, especially members of the press. As part of that effort, the ambassador participated in an event involving needy children at a Wal-Mart-subsidized soup kitchen run by Caritas in a disadvantaged neighborhood. Several hundred children jammed the building as Wal-Mart volunteers and the ambassador served a snack and handed out toys. The presence of the ambassador attracted media coverage of the moving event, which served to showcase throughout the region Wal-Mart's volunteer efforts and the commitment by U.S. companies to their communities. -------------- -------------- Reinforcing Cultural, Educational, and Scientific Ties -------------- -------------- ¶9. (U) The ambassador dedicated a significant portion of the trip to publicizing and solidifying the cultural, educational, and scientific ties between Argentine institutions in Cordoba and U.S. counterparts. First on his agenda was a roundtable with participants in the Junior Achievement program, which in Cordoba dates from 1994. That meeting began with the ambassador offering words of encouragement to the assembled young people, then listening as each described his or her particular project. The projects were ambitious and inspiring, ranging from a business startup that used profits to take underprivileged children on vacation to organizing the upcoming International Forum of Entrepreneurs (FIE) conference, scheduled for May 14-19 in Cordoba, and for which young people from eighteen nations are expected. The Junior Achievers honored Ambassador Wayne by asking him to be keynote speaker at the conference. ¶10. (U) Administrators at the University of Cordoba, Argentina's oldest university (founded in 1613),were eager to discuss with the ambassador ways to improve U.S.-Argentina educational exchanges. According to those officials, such exchanges have been relatively insignificant compared to the relationships Argentine universities enjoy with their European counterparts. Dr. Hugo Juri, a professor at the university and a former Argentine education minister, assured the ambassador that that circumstance is not a result of animosity or ideology. Rather, it is the result of immigration patterns and other historic factors. ¶11. (U) Argentine universities are very interested in beefing up exchange relationships, according to Juri. Ambassador Wayne agreed that many possibilities exist to augment exchanges, and offered to assist the University of Cordoba with points of contact within U.S. institutions. The educators were also interested when the ambassador mentioned the proposed Global Science Partnerships for the 21st Century program (GSP21) as a way to build ties. That proposed program was first presented in Argentina to Minister of Education Filmus in November 2006 by Science Adviser to the Secretary George Atkinson (reftel). SIPDIS ¶12. (U) The ambassador's visit to the IICANA bi-national center also contributed to the goal of promoting existing cultural and educational cooperation. At IICANA, Ambassador Wayne spoke with grantees of U.S. exchange programs, congratulated outstanding students of English, announced the creation of a new scholarship for ten English language students of limited means (the Sarmiento-Mann Scholarship), and spoke with television and radio reporters. ¶13. (U) Two of the ambassador's events were designed to highlight U.S.-Argentina scientific cooperation, which dates to 1871. That was the year that Argentine president Sarmiento, working with the Massachusetts astronomer Benjamin Apthorpe Gould, opened the Argentine National Observatory. The ambassador visited the observatory, now a museum, to honor Gould. The ambassador also traveled to Argentine space agency CONAE's Cordoba land station, approximately forty kilometers south of the city, to underline the positive state of the current U.S.-Argentina scientific partnership. CONAE is an important NASA partner, and NASA is investing approximately USD 250 million in a joint satellite project (SAC-D/Aquarius, scheduled for launch in 2009). -------------- Press Freedom and Local Politics -------------- ¶14. (U) In keeping with his practice of openness to the press, Ambassador Wayne made contact with local media following each of his scheduled events. The resultant interviews and press releases attracted local media interest, resulting in television, radio, and newspaper coverage of the business, social, and educational elements of the visit. In a frank, off-the-record session, media owners and editors offered insights into local politics, and noted that anti-Americanism in Cordoba was less significant a phenomenon in Cordoba than in Buenos Aires, and also that it is now less intense than in the past. The editors did lament the government's use of official advertising to influence the press, but said that there is still a wide variety of opinions expressed in the Cordoba press. ¶15. (U) The ambassador arrived in Cordoba on the same day that Governor De la Sota gave his final annual state of the province address, which was a difficult story to compete against. Still, following dinner with the governor that evening and a meeting with the mayor (the governor's political rival) the following morning, the city's leading newspaper -- La Voz del Interior -- picked up the ambassador's press release. That release reflected the Embassy's neutrality vis-a-vis the ongoing political dispute between the governor and the mayor, and focused on the U.S. objectives of protecting and enhancing the development and expansion potential of U.S. information technology companies in Cordoba. WAYNE