The United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says that the region could become an “important trading partner” with India, noting that exports from regional countries to India represented only 0.9 percent of the region’s total exports in 2008-2010.
“Although the figure was lower than that of exports to other nations, such as Korea and China, there is significant potential for increasing it in the medium term,” said ECLAC on Dec. 5.
In a new publication, entitled: India and Latin America and the Caribbean: Opportunities and Challenges in Trade and Investment Relations, ECLAC said the outlook is “promising, in particular in the present context of the larger influence of emerging nations in the world economy, including India and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s executive secretary, in the foreword of the publication, which was presented here during a seminar in Buenos Aires, Argentina, urged, on the back of recent global economic events, that India and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean “rethink strategic alliances both globally and regionally.
“They need to reposition themselves in the world economy and enhance cooperation in innovation and human capital in order to diversify trade, add greater value and apply new knowledge to exports, thus helping to create more stable conditions for growth,’ she told the seminar, organized by ECLAC and the Government of India.
ECLAC said the Indian economy will surpass that of Japan as the world’s third largest economy in 2011 in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), “measured by purchasing power parity and has been responsible for almost 10 percent of world economic growth in recent years.”
ECLAC said countries in Latin America and the Caribbean weathered the recent world economic crisis with “unprecedented resilience and emerged from it more quickly and robustly than the developed economies.
“For this reason, the region is called on to assume an even larger role in the global economy. India can and should be an active partner in the region’s endeavor,” it said.
“Countries in the region must work together with India to anticipate this new scenario, adjusting their policies and strategies so as to take advantage of the growing potential of South-South economic links and cooperation,” the publication states.
The report states that to promote trade and investment flows between Latin America and the Caribbean and India, the region must adopt an approach which pursues a “more efficient and coordinated exploitation of natural resource-based comparative advantages” and makes “greater efforts to promote industrial development by improving the international competitiveness in manufacturing sect.”
