| Latin-Asia business forum opens in Singapore |
SINGAPORE, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Latin Asia Business Forum opened here Monday morning, attracting some 400 business delegates from 21 countries to attend to explore more opportunities in the two regions.
In recent years, political and economic ties between Latin America and Asia have deepened. Bilateral trade has been on the rise. Last year, total trade flows between Latin America and Asia reached 267.3 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 24 percent over2006.
Latin America's trade with Southeast Asia also grew by 8 percent to 31.8 billion U.S. dollars last year, according to a statement by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the organizer of the Forum.
Speaking at the Forum, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang said that with Latin America's rich natural resource base and burgeoning private sector, and Asia's strength in manufacturing and services, the areas for collaboration will continue to expand across many sectors.
Latin America's infrastructure sector in particular has attracted the interest of a number of Asian companies.
The Forum highlighted 20 infrastructure projects in Latin America with a total estimated value of 23.38 billion U.S. dollars, which include projects in port and logistics management, oil and gas, water and wastewater treatment and multi-modal transportation.
Minister Lim also urged Singapore businessmen to take up opportunities in Latin America for collaboration. "There are many areas where there are opportunities for collaboration, be it in agri-business, food and beverage, electronics, oil and gas, transport, logistics or infrastructure," he said.
Singapore was Latin America's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia last year, accounting for approximately a third of the total trade between the two regions.
In the first seven months of this year, its total trade with Latin America stood at 10 billion U.S. dollars, a 70 percent increase over the previous year.
There are now 56 Singapore-based companies with 191 points of presence throughout Latin America engaged in a variety of business and investment projects.
The Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Federation of Industries of Rio Grande do Sul (FIERGS) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during the Forum on Tuesday.
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