Heide Fulton maintained that Uruguay is a reliable partner and stressed that his country buys 60% of Uruguayan IT services exports.
The Chamber of Commerce Uruguay – United States organized a welcome lunch for the new ambassador of the North American country in Uruguay, heide fultonwho highlighted the bilateral relations between both nations and, mainly, the opportunities that the country’s information technology (IT) industry has in terms of exports.
“We are a trusted partner for Uruguay, and Uruguay is a trusted partner for the United States”said Fulton during the event that had her as the protagonist in the golf Cluband which was attended by national authorities.
The export of services, a priority in the relationship between countries
Although Fulton recognized the importance of the export of goods from Uruguay to the United States, which between 2021 and 2022 grew more than 200 million dollarsthe ambassador recognized that her point of greatest interest today is the exportation of services.
“The United States is the main market for Uruguay’s exports of services and particularly those that come from its thriving information technology sector,” he said, using data from the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technologies (CUTI) to support his statements. In this sense, he pointed out that the local body registered that The United States buys 60% of Uruguay’s information technology service exports. This means 600 million dollars of Uruguayan technology, “almost equal to the export of goods,” he compared.
The item is promising, not only because of the important figures it already handles, but also because the North American country has no limitations, neither legal nor tariff. However, the biggest challenge facing the local industry is the lack of skilled labor. “There is between 3,000 and 10,000 jobs that cannot be completed in Uruguay in the information technology (IT) sector and we are working with the government on this issue, developing programs to reduce this gap”, announced Fulton.
In terms of investment, he mentioned that there is a “large number” of US companies that “trust Uruguay” and want to settle in the country. In this regard, he pointed out that in the last decade, some 80 local firms were bought by US companies, and almost 200 companies from that country in Uruguay are generating more than 25,000 jobs. Among them, he singled out PepsiCo of Cologne, that last month it inaugurated the expansion of a concentrate plant, whose production represents almost 1% of the Uruguayan economy; already I will know with nearly 1,000 employees.
“There are Uruguayan producers who would like to sell more to the United States (…) and producers in my country who would also like to sell more to Uruguay,” said the US ambassador, but acknowledged that both countries “produce the same thing,” so that efforts should be “produce better to feed the world”.
Source: Ambito
