Río Negro obtained the federal approval required to activate an international loan aimed at connecting and modernizing its entire public health network. At a meeting in Buenos Aires on June 4, Economy Minister Luis Caputo signed authorization for US$60 million in financing from the Inter-American Development Bank. Governor Alberto Weretilneck also left with an expectation of adding a second US$85 million loan for production and risk management.
The first program will cover all 36 hospitals and 191 primary care centers across the province. The investment is designed to digitally integrate facilities separated by great distances, expand connectivity, modernize data networks and add servers and medical-administrative systems. The goal is for clinical information and management to circulate through one network instead of remaining fragmented among towns.
The transformation also includes equipment and services directly related to patient care. The plan will strengthen telehealth to bring consultations and tests closer to remote populations, and acquire biomedical technology for intensive care, neonatology, operating rooms, diagnostic imaging, laboratories and hospital pharmacies. The loan thus combines digital infrastructure with actual diagnostic and treatment capacity.
The second financing line was presented at that meeting as the next step, not as a completed disbursement. Caputo said an additional US$85 million loan could be approved in mid-June. The distinction matters: the meeting formalized the health authorization and advanced the production program, whose confirmation still had to pass through the corresponding stage.
That second program targets modernization of IDEVI irrigation, expansion of irrigated land, rural electrification and infrastructure in strategic production areas. The works seek more efficient use of water and lower costs for agriculture, livestock and agroindustry. Production expansion is paired with management of drought, snow, hail and fires through prevention and assistance systems.
Weretilneck added another infrastructure issue to the agenda: the national roads crossing Río Negro. The governor presented alternatives for transferring some corridors to provincial control and received a favorable assessment from the Economy Ministry, although no transfer had been completed. The discussion connects the sector loans with the broader issue of connectivity for services, production and exports.
The meeting ended with a review of projects that could change the province's economic mix, including the VMOS oil pipeline, the Atlantic coast liquefied natural gas initiative and planned gold and silver exports from Calcatreu. The immediate advance was the US$60 million health authorization; reaching the full US$145 million scale depended on completing the second loan and turning both programs into functioning works, equipment and networks.
