Paraguay strengthens relations with Canada for forestry and energy development

This Ministry of Industry and Commerce release was published using machine translation.

The vice minister of the Investment and Export Network (Rediex), Rodrigo Maluff, within the framework of his mission to North America, held a series of strategic meetings with Canadian parliamentarians and businessmen to attract possible investment projects.

During the work meetings, the options and benefits of having Paraguay as an ally for investments were discussed. Among the topics addressed, three main axes of interest stand out: the forestry sector, gas and the generation of electrical energy, explained Vice Minister Maluff.

Likewise, Maluff held a meeting with Deputy Randy Hoback, who, according to the Deputy Minister, is open to working on a collaboration between the province of Saskatchewan and the country.

Likewise, Maluff met with Deputy Ed Fast, in the office of the representative in the province of British Columbia, one of the largest producers of forestry exports, hydroelectric generation and natural gas processing.

“We have topics of common interest that we would like to continue exploring. The deputy promised to invite us to the most important fairs on the 3 topics mentioned. In addition, he suggested that we move forward with the signing of a bilateral investment protection agreement,” said Maluff.

Investment attraction

In addition, the deputy minister of Rediex held a virtual meeting with the members of the Quebec Depository and Investment Fund. Currently, this institution invests in sovereign bonds of our country, therefore, this proximity facilitates the negotiation of possible investments in different areas.

“They are interested in participating in the Forest Investment Fund that AFD and the World Bank are developing. We also talked about infrastructure projects, especially the gas pipeline,” said Maluff.

Another of the meetings carried out by the Paraguayan delegation was with the non-profit organization, Trade Facilitation Office (TFO), which has the mission of creating sustainable trade associations between exporters from developing countries and Canadian and foreign buyers. TFO Canada provides assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and trade support institutions (TSIs) in developing countries.

“We spoke with Steve Tipman, executive director of the Trade Facilitation Office with Canada (TFO) and among the topics addressed they found it very interesting to develop the positioning of Paraguayan meat in Canada and the United States,” he explained. These are some of the meetings that the vice minister of Rediex has been holding to open markets and attract investments to our country.