Argentine businessman Eduardo Eurnekian is investing $1.2 billion in a chip plant south of Buenos Aires to tap a growing market in Latin America for credit cards, mobile phones and electronic identification.

The manufacturer, known as Unitec Blue, began production in February after an initial investment of $300 million with an output capacity of 1.2 billion chips a year, which will double by the end of 2016, according to its president Matias Gainza Eurnekian, Eduardo Eurnekian’s nephew.

Eurnekian, who is worth at least $1.3 billion, is expanding in Argentina at a time when currency controls, 24 percent annual inflation and import restrictions are deterring investment there. In the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness ranking, the country slipped nine spots to number 94 of 144 economies for the 2012-2013 period. Earlier this year, Eurnekian’s Corporacion America holding company bought 81 percent of Argentine oil company Cia. General de Combustibles for $200 million.

“Corporacion America is the most aggressive investor in the country right now,” Gainza Eurnekian, 28, said during a May 23 tour of the 10,000 square meter (108,000 square feet) plant in Chascomus, 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital. “This is a long-term project so we don’t let current politics affect our strategy. We like to invest in Argentina because we’re Argentine.”

Bloomberg News, May 30, 2013