representatives of the European Union (EU) held a business meeting on Thursday in Montevideo with the deployment of technology 5G and advances in green hydrogen as central items on the agenda.
damian kaminskicounselor and head of the EU Economy and Trade sector in Uruguay, highlighted the good state of trade ties between the countries of the European bloc and Uruguay.
“We have a perspective of a trade that is growing very well, with a global figure of trade in goods and services of about 6,000 million dollars”, he highlighted in dialogue with the EFE news agency and explained that, in 2022 according to Eurostatthe bilateral exchange reached the record of 4,300 million dollars (3,900 million euros).
Kaminski stressed the importance of trade in services, which set another record in 2021 with around 1.8 billion dollars, and pointed out that Uruguay currently ranks fifth in European foreign direct investment within Latin America.
On this point, he added that challenges remain, since the landing in the country of the European Investment Banksomething that would facilitate financing operations in key sectors.
“We are talking about investments in three key sectors that are green hydrogen, infrastructure and also 5G, where we have proposals from companies and we want to work with the government in carrying out those proposals,” Kaminski said.
Although he qualified that the EU is there “in a situation of competition”, he maintained that there is progress on green hydrogen, since the German company enertrag already announced an investment of 1,000 million dollars in the center of the country to produce it.
In addition, in infrastructure there was an investment from the Belgian Katoen Natie of 600 million dollars and in 5G technology there is a European proposal that, he said, may interest Uruguay.
Optimism for the agreement with Mercosur
On the other hand, according to the counselor and head of the EU Economy and Trade sector in the country, all the expectations of the European Union are placed on the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) which will take place in Brussels on July 17 and 18.
There, he highlighted, there will be talks about environment and digital alliances and news about the agreement with Mercosur may be announced, which, due to new demands, still cannot materialize.
“We are in this new context with new authorities in Brazil talking about what we need to be able to finalize this agreement, perhaps with an announcement at the EU-Celac Summit”, he concluded.
The European meeting, which took place at the Montevideo Golf Club, was attended by a hundred Uruguayan businessmen. They also spoke the ambassador of the EU in Uruguay, Paolo Berizziand the President of the Uruguayan Parliament, Mario Amelotti.
Source: Ambito
