After having visited Shenzhen, the capital of technology in China, Uruguay's vision will not be the same, because recent times demand the need to advance vertiginously in this field and the Southern Cone country is hurrying and taking advantage of this meeting with the Asian region to promote an area that, apparently, is not very explored in this part of the world, namely the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that Uruguay is currently exporting.
As Leonardo Loureiro, president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI), said in an interview with the newspaper LA REPÚBLICA, who participated in the visit to China at the beginning of this year, and assumes that it is a great opportunity to promote trade and investment meetings in ICT.
The Cuti does an annual survey, the last one was done in 2016, and the upward trend is always maintained, Loureiro says that during this period it was interesting because they reached a fairly large export figure of around 400 million dollars and the main export market for software and ICT services is the United States with a very strong weight that covers 60%. This is followed by the second customer, Argentina with 7%, then Spain (5.4%), Colombia (4.5%), and Ireland (4.5%). In addition to other markets that have started to emerge such as Switzerland and Japan, which reflects the potential and capacity of the sector to meet the demands of clients in the extra-region.
Of the 400 million dollars exported, one third of the products are software licences, two thirds of the services are made up of solution development, that is, if a company abroad needs specific programming, one of the Uruguayan companies develops it here. And the last third is the implementation of solutions, where there are specialists who develop this service "from Uruguay to the world".
According to data provided by Loureiro, export figures are really encouraging for the country because they exceeded 10% growth compared to the previous period. While there was a small growth in domestic sales. "However, it had an important impact because the ICT sector is worth 800 million dollars, which means that sales exceed 1.2 billion dollars in both domestic and export markets, which is equivalent to 2.2% of GDP," explained the representative of the Chamber, which currently brings together more than 350 companies that offer products and services to more than 52 markets.
This chamber, defines Loureiro, "has the mission to promote the development and growth of the technology industry in Uruguay, the main ICT industry and an active partner reference centre for institutions that make up the Uruguayan technology industry ecosystem such as business incubators, academic-industrial centres, universities, technology parks, government institutions and business associations".
Synergy through the Mission to China
The relevance of this mission is, first, to understand and get to know such an important market, and the other thing is that for Uruguay this Asian country is the main trading partner, but in terms of ICT exports it does not reach 1%, Loureiro told LA REPÚBLICA.
"What is important for us is that there is a very large domestic market in China and other Western countries that we had not explored and with which we can trade," said the president of CUTI, noting that there are several Uruguayan companies doing business in China, some with their own offices.
"That mission was quite enriching, it is impressive how far China has advanced in technology, and clearly we must begin to understand the potential of working together with this country, we have a great opportunity, it is a great reference in artificial intelligence and after we returned from that trip we were able to talk with the companies of the Chamber to integrate this and also to see the possibility of establishing business in China. We have the virtue of having a very active Uruguayan embassy in China. And well, the other thing is to establish strategies, to understand where the world is going", summarises Loureiro on the experience of the trip they made at the beginning of the year.
Great opportunities
The Minister of Industry, Carolina Cosse, recently spoke to REPÚBLICA Radio about the importance of 30 years of diplomatic ties with China and stressed that the country has a huge opportunity to become the gateway for Chinese investment in Latin America.
"The fact that Uruguay is so stable is a huge attraction for China to develop business in the whole region," said Cosse, who joined the business delegation that visited the Asian country.
The minister is working to promote business and investment in the Asian giant and to turn Uruguay into "the technological port of Latin America".
"The truth is that taking advantage of this important anniversary, in half a month we organised the mission together with the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology and we are visiting this country to tell what we have done in telecommunications infrastructure, energy, the software industry, the plans we have for robotics and electronics," he added.
We have a developed software industry, we are educating our children in information technology, we are working on robotics at all levels of education," she said, "that opens doors for us to develop things together and opens opportunities to start generating working relationships.
He explained that during the visit to one of the leading drone development companies in the world, DJI, important links were generated for two of the Uruguayan entrepreneurs who are working on drone applications and artificial intelligence. "We were able to make a contact to continue working together," he added.
Uruguay XXI
In statements made to the Presidential Communications Secretariat, the executive director of Uruguay XXI, Antonio Carámbula, who participated in the mission, stressed that "the main objective of the trip, carried out in close collaboration with the Uruguayan embassy in China, is to promote trade between the countries, attract investment in the information and communication technologies sector, and exchange with some of the most important technology firms in the country, both in the city of Shenzhen (Canton province) and in the capital, Beijing".
During the tour, two business seminars were held by Minister Cosse on trade and investment opportunities in information and communication technologies in Uruguay. The seminars included "B2B" business exchanges between the Chinese participants and the business delegation from our country.
Carámbula points out that China is Uruguay's main trading partner for goods. "In 2017, 28% of all exported goods were destined for the People's Republic of China, and our country is one of the most important exporters of meat to that country".
The expansion of global services, highlighting the role of regional corporate centres, said the director of Uruguay XXI, is another commercial attraction. "Today our country is positioned worldwide as a centre or network of operations oriented to high quality corporate services".
The country's strategic location and access to an expanded market, institutional confidence and macroeconomic soundness, legislation favourable to the installation of productive investments, as well as Uruguay's leadership in communication, clean energy, fibre optics, internet penetration and availability of human talent, are some of the factors that make Uruguay highly competitive in this aspect.
Source: La República
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