Recently, Gustavo Menéndez, Head of International Relations for Argentina’s Justicialist Party and Mayor of Merlo City, Buenos Aires, led a delegation to visit the Fengtai District. The delegation members visited Beijing United Information Technology Co., Ltd. (IBI) and held a meeting with Lin Yanhong, Vice Mayor of Fengtai District. The two sides had in-depth discussions on economic and trade cooperation, industrial matchmaking, and sister-city development, reaching broad consensus.

The delegation members first visited IBI, learning in detail about the company’s achievements in digital supply chains, cross-border e-commerce, and green industries, with a focus on its innovative practices in international trade services and industrial digital transformation. Mayor Menéndez spoke highly of IBI’s platform resources and technological strengths. He noted that Merlo, as an important industrial center in Buenos Aires, enjoys distinctive advantages in agricultural product processing, manufacturing, and logistics hub development. IBI’s digital service capabilities and global resource integration experience align closely with Merlo’s development needs. He expressed the hope that business cooperation could serve as a bridge to promote the two-way exchange of high-quality resources between the two sides.

During the meeting, Vice Mayor Lin extended a warm welcome to the delegation and outlined Fengtai’s strengths in technological innovation, modern services, and international exchanges. She noted that, as an important driver for development in southern Beijing, Fengtai enjoys significant advantages in its location and immense growth potential. The district is actively engaging in China-Argentina cooperation, contributing its strength to the joint exploration of mutually beneficial, win-win cooperation models.

Mayor Menéndez highly commended China’s development achievements and its sincerity in cooperation, emphasizing that the Justicialist Party has consistently valued relations with China and will actively promote comprehensive exchanges between Argentine local governments and their Chinese counterparts. He said that Merlo has a solid industrial foundation and broad development prospects, and is willing to facilitate Chinese enterprises’ investment and business operations in Argentina. He expressed particular interest in deepening cooperation with Fengtai District and IBI in areas such as cross-border agricultural trade and industrial digital upgrading. He also hopes to advance people-to-people exchanges in culture and education, fostering the China-Argentina friendship at the local level.

Homero Koncurat, a diplomat from the Argentine Embassy in China, attended the meeting. He said that Fengtai District’s industrial strengths and open approach were impressive. In light of Argentina’s rich resources and development potential in agriculture and manufacturing, he hoped to further develop cooperation platforms across various fields between Fengtai District and various regions of Argentina, achieving more tangible cooperation outcomes to benefit the peoples of both countries.

In recent years, Fengtai District has actively served China’s overall diplomacy and expanded its international exchanges and cooperation, working to build an important bridge to better share the Fengtai story and attract foreign investment. This visit not only established a regular communication mechanism between governments and enterprises in Fengtai District and Merlo City, but also broadened the scope of China-Argentina subnational cooperation, injecting new vitality into the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.