Uruguay sets up new consulate in HK, eyeing opportunities with the SAR and China
發佈日期: 2025-05-11 19:59
TVB News
The South American nation of Uruguay officially set up a consulate in Hong Kong on Friday with the country's foreign minister now on his first official visit to China.
As this year marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of trade relations between the two countries, their diplomats shared with TVB News their plans to boost business ties with China.
Bordering South American giants Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay is home to 3.4 million people -- just around half of the population of Hong Kong.
Hailed "the Switzerland of South America," what Uruguay might lack in size, it makes up for in economic prowess -- and a green vision.
It boasts the highest GDP per capita in South America until 2024 -- overtaken just recently by Guyana. Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, also tops Mercer's quality of living index in the region.
Around a month after Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi took office in March, the country's Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin is now undertaking a trip to China and the SAR, having met Chief Executive John Lee and Cui Jianchun, Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong.
As Uruguay generates up to 98 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, Fernando Lugris, the ambassador of Uruguay to China, hopes to forge more green energy collaboration projects.
FERNANDO LUGRIS, Ambassador of Uruguay to China: "The most important project ongoing in the country in the field of infrastructure is being done by a Chinese company, and it's to boost our interconnection of clean energy in the country. So I believe that the areas of clean energy and electric mobility will be two of the most important ones in the future projects."
The latest China-CELAC Forum with Latin American and Caribbean countries will take place in Beijing coming Tuesday, and Uruguay is poised to assume the rotating presidency of CELAC in 2026.
The ambassador hopes it will be a platform to not just elevate comprehensive strategic partnership with China but also ensure peace and security in the region.
With its new consulate-general set up in Hong Kong and the bilateral commodity trade between the city and Uruguay having jumped 8.8 percent year-on-year in 2024, topping 120 million dollars, Uruguay's newly minted consul-general hopes to introduce the country's business edge to Hong Kong.
One of the first initiatives of Uruguay's consulate in Hong Kong is to roll out a working holiday program, which is currently under discussion with the SAR government. It aims to provide dozens of spots to encourage cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two sides.
FEDERICO LAGE, Consul-General of Uruguay in Hong Kong: "We also serve as a logistics hub for South America and a business services hub because we have free trade zones that make it very efficient to provide services from them in Uruguay to the rest of the Americas."
