Santos Seeks Diversification of Markets and Regaining Venezuela

Santos Seeks Diversification of Markets and Regaining Venezuela

Photo: Santos Seeks Diversification of Markets and Regaining Venezuela

The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos called this Saturday (14) for the traders in the country to insist on diversification of international markets for their products, while working to regain the market in Venezuela.

"It seems very important to me the exercise that you have done to bring in other markets. "It is also important that they are not going to stop doing this. On the contrary, they should be encouraged to continue this work. Look for other markets, and gradually the Venezuelan market will be recovered," he remarked.

Santos considers the diversification of markets for exports of vital importance because, he said, Colombia has depended heavily on Venezuela, a nation with which he restored diplomatic relations on Tuesday morning after a meeting in Santa Marta with his counterpart, Hugo Chavez.

Nevertheless, he pointed out the meaning of the Venezuelan market for the country.

"Personally," he said to President Chavez: "for me, regaining this market has a special value, because it was during my Ministry of Commerce when I negotiated the free trade treaty with Venezuela, and when you initiated this process of rapid increase of exports to this country," he expressed. "A market that will always be very important to us," he continued.

On the other hand, the Colombian ruler said that his country currently relies heavily on the U.S. market.

"Therefore our interest is also to increasingly open spaces in other markets, here in Latin America, in Asia," he said.

Kicking off in Bucaramanga (Santander) the first day of the "Agreements for Prosperity", as he has been wanting to call the thematic meetings with the community, the president insisted that in so far as exports diversify, the country will be covered for contingencies for the future.

"To the extent that we can diversify our exports, we are covered for eventualities for the future. This does not strike us as a region in the world to have some difficulty. This is healthy in principle," he noted.

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa KARPOVA

PRAVDA.Ru