Russian experts says Latin America is serious economic pole

HAVANA, November 5. /TASS/. Latin America is a very serious global economic pole, Tatiana Mashkova, director general of Russia’s National Committee for Promoting Economic Cooperation with Latin American Countries, said in an interview with TASS on Wednesday. "None of the Latin American countries alone is a pole of the multipolar world, but Latin America as a whole, with its population of more than 600 million, is obviously a very serious pole. That is why in terms of cooperation, it is better to consider not individual countries but focus attention on blocks," she said. Mashkova is taking part in the Russian-Cuban Business Forum, a business mission of Russian companies in Cuba organized on the sidelines of the 33rd international fair FIHAV-2015 underway in the Cuban capital city of Havana. Not One For All But All For One Speaking about multi-polarity of the present-day world, she cited as an example Central America, with growing interest to this region. Thus, in her words, Russia’s trade with, for example, Nicaragua was near zero due to high delivery costs. The situation however changes when we speak about the entire Central America with its population of 50 million. "It is a serious and weighty partner," she said, adding that Russia’s exports to Central America were made up of buses, tractors, etc. However, she noted, food imports from that regions were scarce due to mandatory certification. Little Strokes Fell Great Oaks Despite the fact that Central American states are rather small, Ecuador, for example, holds 87 percent of Russia’s entire banana market. Apart from that, it has a big share of the Russian flower market. That is why "Latin America may be interesting from the economic point of view in case both sides are ready to be patient, serious and consistent," Mashkova said. "We need to solve problems of logistics, transportation, it is too expensive to use air transport." For instance, in her words, Chile was ready to sell much more fish, salmon that it was selling now but sanitary problems hamper expanded exports. As a result, the Chilean side said it was ready to remedy the situation. The Russian expert drew attention to the necessity to accelerate work with Latin America and praised the National Committee for Promoting Economic Cooperation with Latin American Countries as a "unique structure," since Russia had had no other institutions that worked with a particular region. Read more