The Asian Development Bank's (ADB) unit that facilitates trade with Latin America, Inter-America Development Bank (IDB), is now seeking more partnerships with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in tapping the lucrative market in Latin American countries, an IDB senior official said here on Monday.
"China and South Korea were already successful in gaining the benefit from their trades with Latin American countries, why not ASEAN countries," Kaname Okada, the IDB's chief of the Japan program, said at a workshop discussing ASEAN-Latin America economic relations here. He added that as of now none of ASEAN's ten countries joined the IDB.
He said South Korea and China were the latest members of a total of 48 countries joined in IDB, that commenced their trade relationships with their Latin American counterparts from zero.
"After joining the IDB, and very active in their business efforts, products from those two countries are very popular in Latin America at the moment," he said.
According to the senior official at the bank that was established in 1974, distance is no longer an issue in the trade between Asian countries and Latin American nations as it can be settled by the rapid information and communication technology improvement.
Kaname said IDB and ASEAN Foundation have signed an agreement on a partnership project that aimed at finding ways to promote potentialities of trade and investment cooperation between countries in the two regions./.