US President Barack Obama has championed Argentina's new centre-right leader Mauricio Macri as an example for other countries in Latin America, praising the fast pace of reforms to strengthen the economy.
Obama, on a two-day visit to Argentina, said Argentina under Macri was poised to play a more influential role on the global stage.
In his first 100 days in office, Macri has distanced himself from South America's leftist bloc, old allies of former President Cristina Fernandez, and sought a thaw in relations with Western capitals as he seeks new investment in Latin America's number-three economy.
"I can tell you President Macri is a man in a hurry," Obama told a joint news conference after the two leaders held talks.
"I'm impressed because he has moved rapidly on so many of the reforms that he promised, to create more sustainable and inclusive economic growth, to reconnect Argentina with the global economy and the world community," he said.
Macri offers Obama a new ally in South America, a region where a strong leftist bloc turned its back on Washington over the past decade but where public opinion is now shifting toward the political centre as governments grapple with graft scandals and an economic slowdown.
"Argentina is re-assuming its traditional leadership role in the region and around the world," Obama said.
His trip to Argentina to forge a new friendship follows a historic visit to former Cold War foe Cuba that aimed to boost US credibility across Latin America. For years, much of the region took a dim view of Washington's longstanding policy of trying to force change on Communist-ruled Cuba by isolating it, a strategy that Obama has cast aside.
Macri said Obama's visit marked the start of new "mature" relations in which the countries would cooperate on issues ranging from trade to fighting international drug trafficking.
Macri has lifted capital and trade controls, slashed bloated power subsidies and cut a debt deal with "holdout" creditors in the United States. But he still has to grapple with double-digit inflation, a yawning fiscal deficit and a shortage of hard currency, and has made securing new foreign investment flows a priority.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Argentina said US
firms would invest $US2.3 billion ($A3.06 billion) in Argentina over the next 18 months, including more than $US100 million each from General Motors, Dow Chemical, AES Corp and Ford Motor.
Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay urged business leaders, at a forum where the new investment flows were announced, to think long-term and said policies aimed at cutting inflation and reinvigorating growth would be felt in the second half of the year.
"We've cleaned out the rubbish," Prat-Gay said in reference to Fernandez's protectionist policies that stunted investment.
"Now we're entering the starting gates."
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