Impresarios from Venezuela, Argentina Sit Down to Talk Business

Some 350 Venezuelan and Argentinean entrepreneurs huddled last week in Polamar (Margarita Island) to cut a number of business deals in several fields, including tourism.

Venezuela’s Foreign Office informed the business round –held within the framework of the Venezuela & Argentina: Integration Partners forum- was opened by President Hugo Chavez on behalf of the host country and closed two days later by his Argentine counterpart Nestor Kirchner.

President Kirchner and Argentina’s Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa arrived in Venezuela last July 22 with an entourage of businesspeople from such fields as farming, food processing, power generation, chemicals and oil byproducts, plastics, machinery, textiles, metals, pharmaceuticals, building, engineering and tourism.

The business meeting was organized by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Argentina’s Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services.

This is the first official business round derived from an assortment of bilateral activities scheduled within the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement signed last spring by both nations.

The agreement includes the creation of a trusteeship whereby Venezuela will step up the purchase of Argentine products that tallied $137 million last year and are expected to double by the end of 2004.

The activities of Argentina’s private sector are backed up by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an effort to find new market slots for Argentina-made products.

Venezuela was accepted as an associated member of the South Common Market (known as MERCOSUR in Spanish) made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Venezuela and Argentina are working closely together for the creation of PETROSUR, a merger of national power operators penciled in as an effective tool toward bilateral and regional integration.