About 400 delegates are expected for a two-day conference backed by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and including several mining leaders. The conference, to be called ''Latin America Downunder'', will be run in Sydney in May and modelled on successful talks held in Perth over the past decade to encourage Australian business links with Africa.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
THERE may be more suits than sequins, but the Latin carnival is heading to Australia - a showcase to improve business ties with South America.
About 400 delegates are expected for a two-day conference backed by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and including several mining leaders.
The conference, to be called ''Latin America Downunder'', will be run in Sydney in May and modelled on successful talks held in Perth over the past decade to encourage Australian business links with Africa.
Paydirt, the company behind the Africa talks, is expanding its franchise to cover Latin American countries in the hope of tapping abundant resources reserves across the continent.
''There is a huge thirst by Australian companies to get offshore and go places where others don't,'' Paydirt executive chairman Bill Repard told BusinessDay.
The conference is expected to begin with a mining and resource focus - including with Xstrata and Vale - and to expand into education, financial services and other sectors in the years ahead.
Jose Blanco, chairman of the Australia-Latin America Business Council - which is supporting the talks - said Australia's ties with South America suffered from a mutual lack of awareness.
''Not all companies that go overseas will find their nirvana in China or Asia. For some, Latin America probably has greater potential, but they are not going to know that if they don't do their evaluation,'' Mr Blanco said. ''My comment to a lot of companies is how can you formulate your international strategy when you don't look at one continent.''
About 70 ASX listed companies now have a presence in Latin America.