Vice president Danilo Astori currently on a business trip to Spain described Uruguay as an “attractive and safe” country to invest given its macroeconomic solidness, strength of its institutions and stimuli for investors, both domestic and from overseas.
The European parliament ‘deplored’ the Argentine government decision to expropriate a majority control in the YPF hydrocarbons corporation - which is owned by Spanish energy company Repsol- and called for the suspension of Argentina's tariff concessions under Europe's so-called generalised system of preferences (GSP). In a resolution, the House also urges Argentina to ”return to the path of dialogue and negotiation”.
Uruguay and Brazil agreed this week to jointly set up a 100MW wind farm in Uruguayan territory demanding an investment of 200 million dollars and which should become operational by 2013.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff following a meeting with an Argentine delegation from the energy sector ratified her country’s decision to “strengthen the investment and the presence of the oil company, Petrobras, in Argentina”.
Argentina managed a first point in the diplomatic dispute with Spain over the nationalization of YPF when the IMF decided to call the conflict a “bilateral affair” and “a decision of a sovereign nation”.
Petrobras and mining company Vale, the two biggest companies in Brazil, have signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue joint ventures in various areas, Petrobras said.
The government of President Cristina Fernandez is “not concerned” about the escalade of international criticism following the announced nationalization of the oil company YPF, and rules “thinking in Argentina not in Spain or the US”, said two cabinet members.
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos welcomed Spanish corporations and guaranteed his visiting Spanish peer Mariano Rajoy that in Colombia there will be no surprises because the country follows the rules of the game: “President Rajoy: here we don’t expropriate”.
Spain will discuss a joint response with the United States to Argentina‘s forced nationalization of the YPF oil company, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on Thursday.
Argentina's government said on Thursday that it had agreed with France's Total to work together to boost natural gas output by 2 million cubic metres per day at two Patagonian fields where YPF – which is being nationalized – also has a stake.