The Israeli government approved a plan worth of about 14.5 million dollars to strengthen economic ties with the Pacific Alliance and other Latin American countries, Israeli Prime Minister's Office said.
The move was made in order to help Israel decrease its dependency on Europe as the primary trading partner.
The plan focuses on Costa Rica and the four countries that make up the Pacific Alliance. These are Columbia, Mexico, Chile and Peru. The plan includes reopening the Israeli embassy in Paraguay, setting up two new commercial attaches' offices in Chile and Peru, cooperating with the Inter-American Development Bank on a designated fund in industrial research, and further supporting Israeli embassies in Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica.
These five countries have a combined GDP of over US$3 trillion and constitutes 40% of Latin America’s GDP. Overall, in 2013, Israel’s exported goods worth US$66.58 billion around the globe.
But only 2%, an amount worth US$1 billion went to the Pacific Alliance states in 2012. Israel wants to expand both that amount and the number of businesses that export to Latin American.
At present 10 exporters account for almost 50% of the total exports to the region, according to the PMO. The Pacific Alliance constitutes the sixth largest economy in the world. The average growth of its member states is 5% and imports are expected to grow by 6% per annum.
It's also expected to boost the number of incoming tourists from Colombia and Mexico for the next three years, and seal more trade and research agreements with Latin American countries.
