Oct. 4 – The 10th Latin Asia Business Forum was held in Singapore on Wednesday, attended by the Finance Ministers of several Asian and Latin American countries. Event Chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, stated that “there is plenty of room to develop ties. We are still significantly underweight in each other. Asia is underweight in Latin America, and Latin America is underweight in Asia.”
Pointing out that trade and investment between the two regions are far smaller in proportion to the size of their respective economies in the global context, he said that Latin America was too reliant on commodities and on supplies purely to China, Japan and South Korea, and that ties with Southeast Asia were negligible.
“Education, infrastructure development, and urban management are all areas where Asia and Latin America can learn from each other,” he stated.
Visiting delegate Enrique Garcia, President of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), said Latin America invests just 3 percent of its GDP into infrastructure and that this was insufficient.
“Part of the lack of productivity (in Latin America) is related to the lack of infrastructure,” noted President Garcia.
Meanwhile, Teo Eng Cheong, CEO of IE Singapore noted that Asia is now Latin America’s second largest trade partner. Trade grew at a huge annual rate of 22.8 percent between 2003 and 2012, and hit US$326 billion last year.
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