MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

In Uruguay we have learnt to bury the old economic paradigms, says Mujica

Mercosur problems child’s play compared to the EU, according to the Uruguayan leader

Uruguay’s strategy is to attract foreign private investors and offer the necessary guarantees to develop their business, said President Jose Mujica in a brief summary of his ten day European visit of four countries and the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels.

He also admitted that the Uruguayan left has learnt “to care for inflation and not to spend more than what comes in”.

“We want private companies, private investors to come to Uruguay and we must guarantee them that we are reliable, respect contracts and that the rule of the law prevails, which is a long tradition in the country”, said Mujica in an informal chat with some of the press that covered his European tour.

“Before we wanted to share, really to distribute nothing, what did not exist, now we want investments to help generate jobs and wealth that we can then distribute” said the former urban guerrilla who spent years in jail before resuming politics and building the strongest force in the Uruguayan left oriented catch all ruling coalition.

“As I told the German business people, at least in Uruguay the traditional Socialist left has managed to bury its old economic paradigms; we have learnt that spending more than what comes in is not right and that we must be very careful with inflation”, insisted Mujica.

The Uruguayan president also cautioned the Europeans about only looking inwards, “if you keep on that path when you turn around Asia will have gobbled you”. This was received with standing applause in all the business forums attended by Mujica.

“For us in Uruguay, in Mercosur, in Latin America is more advantageous to have an open diverse world in which we can have several interlocutors and not depend on an only one”, pointed out Mujica.

The Uruguayan president also admitted that sometimes he looses his temper with Mercosur trade problems, with obstacles to commerce and difficulties to access the markets of senior members (Argentina and Brazil), but “after having been to Europe and personally seen the situation and workings of the EU, the permanent stress, Mercosur problems are child’s play”.

As to concrete results of the visit members of Mujica’s delegation said that Norwegian fishing companies are considering operating from Montevideo and in Germany several companies showed great interest in infrastructure projects.

Such is the case of Siemens which is interested in a fast train linking Carrasco international airport with downtown Montevideo; support for the mining industry; port infrastructure; tourism and hotel development plus renewable energies of which Germany is a leader globally.

Uruguay is seen as a reliable, serious partner who can be trusted and plays by the rules, that was the impression in Germany, said the head of the Uruguayan-German Commerce Chamber Tobias Winter who also travelled in the official delegation.

“Uruguay has become a most interesting country with the best business climate for investment in the Latin America. If an European wants to invest in Latin America the overall best performance will be delivered by Uruguay, better than Chile or Brazil”, said Winter.