On the morning of November 17, 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao who was on a state visit to Argentina met with Mayor Anibal Ibarra of Buenos Aires and representatives of Argentine entrepreneurs.

Hu said to Mayor Ibarra that 10 years ago he visited Buenos Aires and today he is very glad to see that the city has achieved new progress in city construction and improvement of people's welfare. Buenos Aires always takes the lead in developing relations with China and as early as 10 years ago has established the friendship city relationship with Beijing. Both cities conduct fruitful cooperation in such areas as economy and trade, city construction, culture and education. Buenos Aires pays equal importance to economic development, improvement of people's welfare and environmental protection, and both sides can further strengthen exchanges, learn from each other and seek common development.

Ibarra complimented that the Chinese living in Buenos Aires contribute actively to the development of the local economy while maintaining their traditional Chinese culture. He added that as the link and bridge of Argentina and China cooperation Buenos Aires will strengthen efforts to push forward the exchange and cooperation with China at all levels.

Hu also met with the representatives of Argentine entrepreneurs. Argentine Economic Minister Roberto Lavagna, heads of the Argentine Entrepreneurs Association and Chamber of Commerce and 30 presidents and CEOs of Argentine banks and multinational companies attended the meeting.

Lavagna introduced the entrepreneurs present at the meeting to Hu Jintao, stressing that the Argentine government encourages businesses of both countries to conduct cooperation in various forms. President of Alcoa company Pagani said that with the rapid development of China the hope to further enrich the form and content of bilateral trade and strengthen information exchange and HR training. President Galperín of SADESA Tannage Company which has cooperated with China for 35 years said that the huge Chinese market means unprecedented opportunities and challenges to all the Argentine businesses and his company is implementing the investment project in China to make better use of the complementarities of the two economies and expand mutual investment.

Hu listened to the speeches of the entrepreneurs carefully and agreed with them on expanding Argentina-China economic and trade cooperation. He introduced the development of Chinese economy and the growth objectives, stressing that China will concentrate on economic development, adhere to the concept of people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development and unswervingly push forward reform and opening up. China's development will create more business opportunities for the rest of the world and surely offer more business opportunities for China and Argentina to expand economic and trade cooperation. He said that Argentina enjoys rich resources, sound foundation of agriculture and industry and great potential of economic growth. China is a developing country with the largest population in the world and has entered into a stage of rapid development with huge market potential. Our two countries have advantages in natural resources, technological strength and market structure respectively and it is completely possible for us to learn from each other's strong points, close the gap and seek common development.

Hu pointed out that China attaches importance to developing economic and trade relations with Argentina and takes Argentina as one of the important economic and trade partners in Latin America. The Chinese government encourages Chinese businesses to invest in Argentina and also welcomes Argentine entrepreneurs to go to China to discuss business cooperation. The two countries should further strengthen exchanges of the business community, support businesses in actively exploring each other's markets, conduct cooperation in various forms, expand mutual investment and push China-Argentina cooperation to new levels. The speech of Hu received warm response from the entrepreneurs present at the meeting.

On the morning of the same day, Hu laid a wreath to the St. Martin monument located in Buenos Aires and received the city key and VIP certificate of Buenos Aires from Mayor Ibarra.