Karnataka - Bangalore

Strengthening ties with Latin America

Bangalore: Trade between India and the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region has increased over five-fold, by 550 per cent, in the past decade. As the Bangalore Chapter of the Indo-Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Association for International Trade and Cultural Cooperation opened a few weeks ago, its president Vaidyanathan Shivkumar spoke to The Hindu about the potential that India had in terms of trade with the LAC region and other issues. Also the Director of the UGC Centre for Latin American and International Studies, Goa University, he had some suggestions to strengthen the relationship between the two parties.

“More than three per cent of India’s world trade goes to Latin America. In the age of globalisation, the foreign policies of countries must pertain to economic and cultural specifics and we must be able to take steps in that direction,” he said.

Prof. Shivkumar also spoke about the activities that are taking place currently. “We are already supplying alternative energy resources to Cuba and agricultural products to Mexico. Trade relations between Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina, in that order, can be very beneficial to us,” he said. In the context of the much-talked about race between China and India, he said that China had entered the area with an investment of over $ 150 billion, whereas India was yet to cross the $ 25 billion mark.

As he spoke about Karnataka in particular, he said that the IT and software services produced were being exported to or working out of the LAC region.

“Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam, Infosys and Wipro have established centres there,” he said.

According to him, the LAC countries would like to interact with Bangalore-based companies in the field of textiles, leather garments, petrochemicals and Ayurvedic products, among others.

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