Former Union Minister Highlights Untapped Potential
Former Union Minister KJ Alphons stated that India and Latin America have significant opportunities for collaboration, particularly in rare earth minerals and the petroleum sector. Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Alphons emphasized that South America is a major source region that India needs to engage with more closely.
"I think it's a fantastic effort. See India and Latin America, we are doing so little, but we can do so much. Latin America is an incredible country. It's a beautiful country with very colourful people, a colourful culture, one of the oldest civilizations, Aztec civilization. But we are doing so little. Search for rare earth minerals and for petroleum products and electronics. South America is a huge, huge source country which we need to kind of get closer to. And again, for Indian exports, we are doing so little. Indian tourists, so few are going there," he said.
Shared Values and Digital Payment Potential
Alphons noted that many factors unite India and Latin America, but the full potential remains unrealized. He stressed the need for Indian industrialists to venture beyond traditional markets. "These are areas in which we need to work so much harder and I think there are many things which unite India and Latin America but we have not realized the potential at all. I think we just need to work so much harder. But for that Indian industrialists need to go out. They can't just be happy selling around wherever they were traditionally selling. The traditional sources will dry up and now today you have a world which is becoming very protective and therefore we just need to go out and capture the market and Latin America is huge and also for Latin American countries," he added.
He also proposed that Latin American countries could adopt India's digital payment system. "India is a huge market. And I was telling the audience here, India has the best digital payment system. I think Latin Americans countries can adopt that. And it is very, very cheap. And it's something which really brings dignity to people, improves business. Yeah, so there are so many things like that by which Indians, Latin American, and Caribbean can work together. And I think this is a very, very good initiative," he said.
Current Trade Volumes Are Minimal
Alphons pointed out that the current trade volume between India and Latin America is too low. "I think as of now, I think it's about $21 billion. I think it's just peanuts. And Indian exports to the Caribbean constitutes, I think, less than 1 and 1.5% of imports by Latin America and Caribbean. So it's very miniscule percent of Indian goods are being imported to Latin America and Caribbean. This can increase dramatically. So does the Latin American exports to India. It's a very, very tiny percentage. So it also needs to really improve dramatically. And there is plenty of scope," he remarked.
