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South American
Countries Must Boost
Integration: Brazilian FM
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil's
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said here
Thursday that South American countries need
to make an effort of integration at the time
of economic crisis.
During a lecture to diplomats in Rio, Amorim
said the integration was a great challenge
of the continent, as it demanded political
will and went against the natural tendencies
of the countries, which was to close up
their economies.
However, Amorim said the integration must be
strengthened, because South American
countries would not be able to rely only on
their domestic markets to face the crisis.
Amorim defended the implementation of
liberalization agreements between the South
American nations, and stressed his belief
that, despite the countries' tendency of
closing their economies in the crisis,
globalization would not end.
However, He admitted that the international
financial crisis may suspend some large
integration projects in South America at
short term. He took the Southern Gas
Pipeline as an example, a project which aims
to connect the gas networks of Brazil,
Venezuela and Argentina.
"This (the pipeline) is not a project to be
developed in the next three or four years,"
said Amorim, "I thought it was viable, but
due to the crisis, there are no available
resources now. The new great projects will
have to wait a while," said Amorim.
The studies for the implementation of the
Southern Gas Pipeline project have been
currently suspended. The project is
estimated to cost over 20 billion U.S.
dollars.
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