LEADERS ACCLAIM NEW SOUTH-SOUTH TRADE AND INVESTMENT MODEL

* Latin America, Middle East and Asia form complementary economic blocs
* South-South relations to boom despite crisis

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Leading policy-makers and businesspeople, meeting at the 2009 World Economic Forum on Latin America in Rio, agreed that the recent boom in trade and investment between Asia, the Middle East and Latin America will continue despite the current international crisis. “The boom in South-South investment and trade is a major historical shift which the crisis will not stop,” said Javier Santiso, Director and Chief Development Economist, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “OECD countries are no longer the centre of the world,” Santiso said. “The periphery is no longer the periphery.”
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World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) President Alessandro Teixeira predicted that even if WAIPA forecasts are correct and global foreign direct investment drops 20-30% in 2009, investment flows from Asia and the Middle East into Latin America will remain extremely strong. “Right now, there is a historical window of opportunity for Latin America in terms of foreign direct investment from Asia and the Middle East,” Teixeira said.

Lord Brennan, Member of the Board of Matrix Chambers added that for Latin American countries to take advantage of the opportunities for investment from Asia and the Middle East, they must improve infrastructure, the legal system and education. “Young people in the region must learn that South-South is the future.”