joint project to strengthen Asia

Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru on Thursday announced a joint project to boost their presence in international markets with a specific eye to the Asia-Pacific region, the Mexican trade promotion agency ProMexico said.Carlos Guzman, director of ProMexico, said the four Latin American countries had agreed to start building joint strategies such as carrying out marketing surveys, attending trade fairs and opening joint promotion offices in the main cities of Asia-Pacific. Guzman, who was speaking at the end of the Meeting of Agencies Promoting the Pacific Alliance held in the Colombian capital, said he was optimistic about the joint work agreement as it represented an important opportunity for both the Latin American countries and their Asian counterparts."Due to the world financial crisis, the global economy is being reconfigured and operations are increasingly transferred toward emerging economies," he said, adding most of the world's future economic growth is expected to be from the Latin American and Asian regions.Maria Claudia Lacouture, president of Colombia's Proexport agency, also said the alliance was instrumental for the four countries' investment and export opportunities in Asia-Pacific."The results of the meeting are very positive. We have come to a work plan that we from now on will develop in order to, as a group, take advantage of more business opportunities," Lacouture said.