MERCOSUR
A panel session on MERCOSUR took place at the Interregional Forum ‘Strengthening international SMEs alliances between the Russian Federation and Latin America and the Caribbean’ on the Zero Day of SPIEF 2016. The session participants outlined the potential of their respective countries for expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia in various industries.
Representatives of six countries made their presentations.
Presenting on export capabilities of Argentina, Mr. Rafael Enrique González Aleman, General Director, Under-Secretary of Commerce and Investments, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointed out that his country is currently going through a transition period. A new President – Mauricio Macri – took the helm of the state in November 2015. Many financial policy restrictions have been abolished. 95% of internal debt has been restructured. Today, Argentina is a full-fledged player of the global financial and economic market. The Government is developing a plan for creating amplest opportunities for improvement of the national economic situation and incentivizing investment flows into agriculture, power industry (conventional and alternative) and infrastructure. Russian market is of great importance for Argentina, and the country is actively looking for partners.
Brazil was represented by Mr. Adriano Santos de Azevedo, Market Intelligence Analyst at Apex-Brasil. Brazil exports its produce to Russia and is actively preparing its companies for entering international markets. Russia is one of the 15 key export markets for Brazilian produce.
Mr. Ramón Gordils, Vice Minister of Economic Cooperation, President of Foreign Trade Bank of Venezuela (BANCOEX) spoke about Venezuela. He drew attention of the session participants to the elaboration of a new industrial development programme in his country with an account of forecasts on the global oil market.
Uruguay is a country of true democracy, as stated by Mr. Pablo Pereira, Manager of Exports Promotion Uruguay XXI. At the moment, there are three parties working together in the Uruguayan Government. National economy grew by over 5.0% in 2015.
Chile has an open economy, Mr. Ricardo Bosnic, Subdirector for Development, PROChile, pointed out. The country is ready for cooperation in the mining sector, agriculture (dairy products, fresh fruit, wine), fish industry (salmon, trout, mussels) and tourism. However, export to Russia is so far very scanty.
Sergey Korotkov, Director of UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation, acted as a Session Moderator.
All representatives of MERCOSUR countries voiced support for expanding cooperation with Russia in a wide range of areas of mutual interest.
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MERCOSUR is a common market of South American countries; economic and political treaty between Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela. The purpose of the Treaty is to promote free trade, flexible exchange of goods, population and currencies between the countries involved.
