Asia, Latin America seek increased investment and trade relations

Asia, Latin America seek increased investment and trade relations

Cecil Morella, Agence France-Presse, Manila

Foreign ministers and senior officials of 32 Asian and Latin
American countries will meet in the Philippines later this week
to improve ties between the mainly developing economies of the
two regions.

The Jan. 29-31 meeting includes first world countries Japan,
Australia and South Korea plus emerging powerhouse China, but
unlike other Pacific rim gatherings excludes the United States,
the main trading partner of many of the countries.

Filipino Foreign Secretary Delia Albert said the Forum for
East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) plans to draft a
plan of action to set the group's direction for the next few
years.

The ministers will discuss ways to cooperate over their
economies, trade, education, science and technology, she added.

Cross-Pacific links once blossomed from galleon trade between
Mexico and China through the Philippines, but since then trade
and other contact have been at a relatively low level.

Philippine history books say the galleon trade lasted from
1565 to 1815.

With North America, Western Europe and Japan taking the bulk
of their exports, developing Asian countries shipped less than
three percent of their products to South America in 2002, Asian
Development Bank figures show.

"Trade and investment in the two regions have not been at a
higher level as we would like it to be," said George Reyes,
spokesman for the Manila meeting.

Asia, with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) at the core, has been promoting economic and
security issues with other regions, including the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that includes the United
States, Canada and the European Union.

The efforts have resulted in the Asian Regional Forum that
discusses security issues in the region with global powers, ASEAN
plus Three that draws China, South Korea and Japan, as well as
the fairly new Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

An Asian diplomat told AFP "it is a question of time before
the (Asia-Latin America) meeting takes a higher profile, and my
gut feeling is that this is going to evolve like ASEM."

ASEM first evolved at the ministerial level in the mid-1990s
and holds summits every other year.

The FEALAC forum was first conceived by Singapore Prime
Minister Goh Chok Thong and Chilean leader Eduardo Frei in 1998,
and Chile hosted its first ministerial meeting in 2001.

"Most of the FEALAC members are developing countries, so we
have a lot in common," Reyes said.

"We face basically the same problems -- access to financing,
inadequate infrastructure, lack of information for the small and
medium-scale enterprises. They don't know what market to
develop."

He said the members hope improved links would lead to long
term political influence on the world stage.

On the Asian side the forum groups ASEAN members Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam along with Australia, China,
Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.

The Latin American countries involved are Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Guatemala and Nicaragua would be brought into the group at the
Manila meeting.