Staff Reporter
Uruguay wants to establish joint venture companies with Bangladesh in the area of information technology eying the 500-million-strong market in Latin America.
“We are thinking of establishing joint venture companies with Bangladesh in IT sector. Uruguay is the biggest software developing country in South America,” said Uruguay Ambassador to Bangladesh Alberto Guani today at an event at the city’s Pan Pacific Shonargaon hotel.
The reception was organised by the honorary consul of Uruguay in Bangladesh Mostafa Q Sobhan.
Earlier in the day, the non-resident ambassador presented his credentials to President Shahabuddin Ahmed.
Speaking to on the sidelines, Guani said the idea of joint venture is to jointly work on developing software and sell the services to the huge South American market.
Bangladesh is a country with large young people having expertise in IT. On the other hand, Uruguay, which is the biggest software developing country in South America, has only 3.5 million people.
“We are a small market but we can think of creating a hub of IT for the rest of the continent where there are approximately 500 million people,” the Uruguayan ambassador said.
The trade between Uruguay and Bangladesh is only about $70 million now, with Bangladesh exporting products worth only $20 million, while Uruguay exporting to Bangladesh worth $50 million.
Alberto Guani said he is identifying new products including wool, wood and soya to export to Bangladesh. The Uruguayans mostly use woolen clothes and if Bangladesh can import wool and manufacture clothes, its export to Uruguay could increase.
Guani said this is the first time he is visiting Bangladesh and he found the country is much more developed than what he imagined.
“I think there are many more opportunities of trade,” he said.
The ambassador said Bangladesh and Uruguay are also working to have agreement on visa waiver for the officials and diplomats and hold political consultation to boost the relationship.
