D I P L O M AT I C A| TRADE WINDS
Uruguay: Digital age trade partnerships
By Martin Vidal
30
These Uruguayan school children are the programmers of the future. Technology services are gaining ground in the trading relationship between Uruguay and Canada.
particular, are gaining ground. We have reason to believe that will continue as the foundations are very strong in both countries, at the private sector level and between governments, as our joint membership in the Digital Nations, a group of 10 leading digital governments, shows. In Uruguay, where the share of the services sector has been growing steadily and now represents more than 60 per cent of the economy, the technology sector accounts for 2.7 per cent of the GDP. Leonardo Loureiro, president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology, has recently said that the technology sector has much more potential and could expand to represent 5 per cent of the economy in the next five years. Based on its comparative and competitive advantages — such as the wide coverage and fast speed of its fibre-optic network — Uruguay’s IT industries show an edge in the fintech and agriculture clusters. But the country also has developed expertise in other non-traditional sectors, such as audiovisuals. With about 700 companies exporting to 52 countries, totalling $1 billion, Uruguay is seen as an attractive bridgehead for companies to extend their business in Latin America, or a place to find partners for the provision of a specific service. Uruguay is embracing the knowledge economy, which focuses on talent, offers growing employment opportunities (especially for youth) and is fairly green. For a sector in which the unemployment rate is virtually zero, educating and training are key, and this is an area in which the state
plays an important role. To that end, it is worth highlighting the Plan Ceibal, which, simply put, is the implementation of the One Laptop Per Child initiative for every child who enters the public education system across the country. Statistics also show that, every year, more women are working in the industry, which is encouraged by different initiatives that bridge the gender gap. Today, the trading relationship between Canada and Uruguay remains goods-focused, but we expect that will continue to grow and services trade will also expand. In 2017, bilateral trade totalled $174 million with Canadians sending $95.8 million worth of fuels, gas, oil, electric and mechanical manufactured goods, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, plastics and byproducts. Canada imported $78.2 million worth of frozen boneless meat, fresh and dried citrus and fresh berries. The Embassy of Uruguay in Ottawa and the consulates general in Toronto and Montreal are working hard to bring people and companies together. We expect a strong Uruguayan participation in Collision 2020 (happening online this year, due to coronavirus) and we hope many Canadians will atttend the next edition of Punta Tech Meetup, one of the most important technology gatherings in Latin America, which will be held mid-January 2021 in Punta del Este, one of the most beautiful coastal tourist centres in the region. Martin Vidal is Uruguay’s ambassador to Canada. Reach him at urucanada@mrree. gub.uy or by phone at (613) 234-2727. SPRING 2020 | APR-MAY-JUN
SOURCE: MARCAPAISURUGUAY.GUB.UY
W
hen we think about trade, we tend to think about the exchange of goods. We imagine containers, a port, warehouses and trucks. In the case of the trade relations between Canada and Uruguay, we could picture packages of frozen Uruguayan grass-fed beef coming to the port of Montreal and being transferred to trucks en route to Toronto. Or, considering the other direction, we could imagine agricultural machinery made in Canada on display in the outskirts of Montevideo, waiting for a farmer from the rural part of Paysandú to take it home. This is the predominant picture about trade, one that is and will continue to be very important, and one that has been stable for decades. And with the boost that a comprehensive free trade agreement currently under negotiation between Canada and MERCOSUR could bring, that kind of trade should grow and diversify. However, this snapshot of trade in goods and its future potential misses the important role of services in trade relations between Uruguay and Canada, especially in the technology sector. Consider the robotics behind the teleoperation of heavy machinery located in remote mining sites, or an artificial intelligence that uses science to create personalized style experiences. From software that makes it possible to track a single head of cattle or can help grow cannabis plants, Uruguayan and Canadian entrepreneurs are working together in growing this bilateral services trade as well as collaborating in third-party countries. This shows quite a different picture about trade, doesn’t it? But it is becoming part of our new bilateral reality, in which services in general, but technology in
