URUGUAY TARGETS AFRICAN ECONOMY
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU
A NATIONAL MONUMENT IN MONTEVIDEO,URUGUAY,NOW THAT NATION IS WATCHING NIGERIAN BUSINESS CLIMATE WITH A KEEN INTEREST.
Latin American nation ,Uruguay is targeting Africa with Nigeria its major destination in its next
phase of its global economic drive and investments.
In an exclusive interview with Paedia Express Multimedia in
his office in Lagos, Nigeria ,the
Director General of the Nigerian –Uruguay Center ,Mr Fola Oludare Ayodele said
the Latin American nation had battled there own form of crisis over the years
having operated a close economy.
He explained that Uruguay was called the Europe of South
America because of the level of
exquisite technology in place which was working efficiently.
He revealed that the nation had a lot of cultural ties which
could be linked to the Yoruba People in South Western axis of Nigeria.
He went down memory lane to recount how Uruguay had an age
long relationship with the United States, Europe among other nations of the world.
He noted that with the emergence of China as the number one
global economic powerhouse ,China formed a South –South cooperation with a view
to the future and this was what made them to bring nations like Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay ,Chile,
Argentina, Venezuela and some other smaller nations.
He fingered Mercusol,a regional economic block as been
responsible for the level of economic integration been achieved in Latin
America presently.
His words:”China later dragged India and South Africa into
it,so it was Mercusol that opened the eyes of Uruguay and they started to open
up and build various forms of partnership with Africa”
“The first port of call was Congo Kinshasa and this was in the
area of peace keeping due to its security problems as a result of several years
of civil war and later on they moved to other sectors of the economy”
He paid tributes to one of Latin America ‘s most respected diplomat and head of the ethnic racial unit of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ,Professor Romero Rodriguez for coming up with
the idea that led to the establishment of
a body called Center Uruguay Africa.
He continues:”They were looking at the cost of creating an
embassy and running a consulate and so they decided to form this center to
focus on Agriculture,Culture,Tourism,Sports,Education,Trade,Maritime,Rural
integration among others”
The diplomat pointed out that Uruguay which is a nation rich
in antiquity has a very rich wine industry with some of its vineyards dating to
almost 500 years ago hence making it to be called Orient Republic due to there
record keeping antecedents.
Mr Ayodele has visited Montevideo, Capital of Uruguay during which eh met with the business
community, members of the legislature ,political class before the decision to start up the Nigerian –Uruguay Center was taken.
According to him ,the organization has been holding seminars
and other forms of meetings with Nigerians so as to introduce Nigerians to that
nations culture and historical background.
He listed areas that they will be drawing the attention of
Nigerians to in the coming years in there campaigns as culture, tourism, education,
business among other areas.
As at press time, The Nigerian -Uruguay Center was preparing
to organize members of the organized private sector for a business working
visit to Montevideo, Uruguay.
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