Argentine President´s Visit to India 14-15 october- outcome for Indian business

Liberalisation of Argentine Visa
Under the visa Agreement signed on 14 october during the visit of President of Argentina to Delhi, the Argentine government has agreed to grant five year multientry business visas to Indian visitors....and that too free of cost. Stay during each visit is 90 days extendable by another ninety days. Fantastic... Let us thank the President and the Foreign Ministry of Argentina. The embassy of India in Buenos Aires will do the same thing for Argentine business visitors ...plus give free coffee under their Cafe con Visa system



Trade target of 3 billion dolars for 2012
The two governments have set 3 billion dollars as the target. The exports of India should double to one billion dollars from 492 million in 2008 and Argentine exports to reach 2 billion by 2012 from 836 million in 2008.

Invitation to invest in Argentina
The Argentine President in her adddress at the busines seminars and meetings in Delhi and Mumbai invited Indian cos to invest in Argentina. She spoke of the new paradigm of stability and growth of the economy, availability of natural resources and creative human resources of Argentina.

She had a meeting with Rattan Tata in Mumbai and in this meeting also the discussion focussed on investment in Argentina.

Joint Ventures
During the business seminar in Delhi, Ashok Leyland signed a JV with TBA of Argentina for making buses and trucks.

Sonali Tractors of India signed agreement with Apache of Argentina for collaboration in assembling agro machinery in India.

Pharma issue
This was taken up strongly by the Prime Minister of India himself with the Argentine President that India should be included in the list of 26 countries from which Argentina allows imports of pharmaceuticals. This is mentioned in the joint statement too.

Inflation in Latin America

Inflation used to be a curse in Latin America. Many countires of the region have suffered Hyperinflation in four digits and three digits. The joke in those days was that one could never tell the exact figure of Latin American inflation and Indian population. By the time one finishes the sentence, both would have gone up !

The governments of the region have tamed it decisively in the last decade. The average inflation of the region has remained in single digit in this decade.

The projection of average inflation in 2009 is 6.1% and in 2010 it is 5.2%, by Latin Business Chronicle and IMF. In an act of extraordinary courage they have even projected the inflation for the period 2010-14 as 5. 2%. This is remarkable. This is the twenty first century Latin America, which I call as the New Latin America, in which things have become predictable. No one would have dared to do such a five year projection even as lates as 1989, when the Argentine inflation was over 3000 percent.
There are , of course, exceptions to the single digit inflationary trend in the region. Venezuela is on the top with the highest inflation in the region with 29.5%. It is expected to increase to 30% in 2010 and more to 32.4% in 2010-14.
Argentina has the second highest inflation with 20%. Costa Rica is third with 8.4%.
Brazil is little over 4 percent in the next five years.
Mexico´s inflation of 5.4% this year is projected to go towards 3 percent in the coming years.
Colombia´s inflation of 4.6% this year is expected to decline to slightly over 3% in the next five years.
Besides inflation, the Latin American governments have also brought under control external debt and exchange rates which have also become predictable.