March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

McKernan, Argentinians ink agreement

AUGUSTA (AP) — Officials from an Argentinian city praised Maine’s job-training programs as they signed an agreement Monday with Gov. John R. McKernan to extend a business-development partnership with the state.

McKernan said the letter of intent is an outgrowth of a South American trade mission earlier this year in which he prospected for international business opportunities for Maine in Argentina, Chile and Brazil.

The agreement involves LaPlata, a city of 545,000 near Buenos Aires in Argentina’s most prosperous province.

When McKernan led a group of Maine business leaders to South America in March, most Argentinians knew of Maine only as a tourist destination and the location of former President George Bush’s summer home, said LaPlata Mayor Julio Cesar Alak.

“But we learned Maine is a great state with a great economic potential and one we could learn a lot from,” Alak said through an interpreter.

One of the greatest lessons is the role of government in job training and retraining, said Alak, noting that Maine officials inspired officials in LaPlata to advance a pilot worker-training program for 1,500 students into a full-fledged school for 2,000 students.

The letter of intent “is the first step of much more serious discussions on how we can collaborate,” said John Fitzsimmons, president of Maine’s Technical College System and the architect of some of Maine’s programs to retrain displaced workers.

The letter mentions such possibilities as sending job-training experts from Maine to teach new trainers in Argentina.

Argentinians are also keenly interested in agencies such as the Finance Authority of Maine, which provides publicly funded guarantees for private business ventures — a new concept in Argentina.

Economic reforms that turned many of Argentina’s business ventures back to the private sector have brought about brisk economic growth and falling inflation in that country.

Alak invited McKernan to the dedication of Institute of Worker Training and Education, which is scheduled for next year. McKernan, who is barred from succeeding himself, is scheduled to leave office early next year.

Alak said there may be a place for joint commercial ventures in the future.

“We want Maine to be a state where Argentinians can come and buy,” said the mayor.

The Argentinian delegates and state officials met earlier Monday with Maine bankers, who may be interested in issuing letters of credit to help establish a reciprocal trading relationship, said Commissioner Michael Aube of Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

“From our perspective, it’s opening doors … to international trade,” said Dan Austin, McKernan’s press secretary.


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