India in Latin America: a New Bric on the Block?
India in Latin America: a New Bric on the Block?
"While much of the business and policy community has focused on China in the region, another BRIC, India, has dramatically increased its investment and economic activity in Latin America," says AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini.
Compared to Chinese supermarkets, it is still almost impossible to find Indian-run grocery stores around the streets of Buenos Aires, Mexico City or São Paulo.
But that could soon change as India steps up its investment in Latin America. From India’s Jindal Steel, which poured over $2bn in iron ore extraction in Bolivia in 2008 to ONGC Videsh, which together with a consortium of other investors acquired a stake in one of Venezuela’s state oil companies for $2bn last year, India is emerging as a major trading partner and investor in the continent.
"While much of the business and policy community has focused on China in the region, another BRIC, India, has dramatically increased its investment and economic activity in Latin America," Christopher Sabatini, director of policy at the Council of the Americas told beyondbrics.
An in-depth article published in the current issue of the Americas Quarterly highlights the extent (and potential) of this budding relationship between India and Latin America. Over the past ten years, the authors say, trade between the two grew eightfold to about $20bn, "that’s still a long way behind the $140bn in Chinese-Latin American trade, but that gap will likely continue to narrow in the years ahead."