India interested in reaching out to Latin America and Mercosur

Sunday, February 27th 2011 - 23:10 UTC

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India is reaching out to emerging markets and Latin America, and more precisely Mercosur is a strategic priority, said India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) India-Uruguay business conference that hosted a large Uruguayan business delegation led by the country’s Vice-President, Danilo Astori. Read full article

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GeoffWard
If I understand the journalist correctly, Vice-president Astori said Uruguay is the gateway to the over 200 million consumer strong Mercosur group and that Uruguay has the most advantageous position in terms of logistics and connectivity with the rest of Latin America.

What planet is the man living on?

OK, it has a port and it is between Argentina and Brasil ....... but connectivity with the rest of Latin America !!! Try freighting goods by road or rail from Caracas to Montivideo for onward transportation to Mumbai.

The man must think that South America has a sub-continental rail network like the one the British built for them!
Feb 28th, 2011 - 03:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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aedi
Geoff said:
'Try freighting goods by road or rail from Caracas to “Montivideo” for onward transportation to Mumbai.“
That's a ridiculous thing to say, of course they would use the Panama canal instead! Montevideo is the ideal gateway for the MERCOSUR countries, plus Bolivia, and even Chile for ships navigating the Atlantic Ocean. Bolivia has been offered an exit to the Atlantic from ports in Uruguay, as Paraguay is doing presently. In order to facilitate that, Astori said:
“We need to improve our transport system our communications, ports, energy and railways, and these are all fields in which this group is interested in exploring opportunities” and then Geoff said:
”The man must think that South America has a sub-continental rail network like the one the British built for them!” .That's a contradiction in itself! Of course the British built their railways, thank you very much, in such a way that's practically impossible to interconnect the countries of the region, they did it on purpose of course, in order to DIVIDE AND CONQUER as they did,do, everywhere. Yes, even in their beloved Australia! Try to travel from Queensland to Victoria on A train!! LOL
Mar 01st, 2011 - 07:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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GeoffWard
Goooood - got a response to the little railway tease - though the Indian railways did span India, Palistan and Bangladesh; only the Japanese wanted them to link up beyond the sub-continent with a new rail-route through Burma (I know, because I had relatives killed in their slave-labour attempt to build it).

But seriously, aedi, Astori SAID, and I quote “..... Uruguay has the most advantageous position in terms of logistics and connectivity with the rest of Latin America.”
Overstatement ot what!

Try making a container beef shipment to Mumbai from (eg) Cuiaba, or a container shoes shipment via Brasilia, and route it through Montevideo port.
Mercosur has a long way to go before Brasil will forgo the Santos option, or Argentina the B.A. option.

To make the Indian model work needs a Latin Americal integrated road and rail INFRASTRUCTURE.
Even with a massive Chinese investment and a massive Chinese workforce (like in Angola) this is decades or even centuries down the track
Mar 01st, 2011 - 10:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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