A group of South American investors are coming to the Philippines to explore opportunities in agriculture, healthcare and food sectors.
The Mercosur-Asean Chamber of Commerce signed a cooperation agreement with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry for mutual assistance on trade.
Mercusor is a sub-regional bloc in South America composed of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
“We want to collaborate together with the Philippines because we are convinced that we have great potential to work together since we have complementary traits and issues and we want to bring businessmen to the Philippines,” said Mercosur-Asean Chamber president and head of delegation Rodolfo Cafforo Kramer.
Kramer said five Uruguayan, four Argentinian and one Brazilian investors with interests in agriculture, food, pharmaceutical and healthcare would come to the country.
The group is also interested to bring in Mercosur technology in various fields and industries, he said.
He said to bridge the long distance, the Mercosur-Asean Chamber was looking at the possibility of introducing direct flights between the two sides.
“We’ve already spoken to Emirates about this. We also want to seek out PAL [Philippine Airlines] but we are yet to speak to them,” Kramer said.
Travel time between Mercosur and the Philippines is nearly 24 hours with two stops and carrier change.
“We travelled almost a day to be here. If direct flight is not at all possible, maybe there is some way to shorten the travel time. Via Sydney is a route that can be explored,” said Kramer.
The Mercosur-Asean Chamber said it would like to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with the Philippines.
It said despite the huge diversity in culture and geography, Asean had successfully managed to integrate the economies of member companies into a singular economic group. It said integration was something Mercosur to learn from Asean.
The chamber said while Mercosur’s vision was to eliminate trade obstacles, it had difficulty in working together as a regional bloc.
The Mercosur-Asean Chamber has offices in Sao Paolo in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Caracas in Venezuela, Hanoi in Vietnam and Manila in the Philippines.
It will soon open up two more offices in Singapore and Jakarta.