SOME 420 business delegates from 21 countries are attending Latin Asia Business Forum (LAB) here on Monday to to learn more about opportunities in the two regions.

Organised by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the forum is widely recognised as the region's premier platform for Asia's business leaders to network with their Latin American counterparts.

In a Boston Consulting Group's study of the top 100 top companies from Rapidly Developing Economies earlier this year, 66 hailed from Asia while 22 had their roots in Latin America.

The findings signal the tremendous growth potential for both regions, and the exciting synergy that exists between Latin America and Asia.

Bilateral trade has been on the rise. Last year, total trade flows between Latin America and Asia reached US$267.3 billion (S$380.2 billion), an increase of 24 per cent over 2006.

Latin America's trade with South-east Asia also grew by 8 per cent to US$31.8 billion last year.

Despite the global slowdown and inflation, growth prospects for both regions remain positive, said IE Singapore in a statement on Monday.

Last year, Latin America's Foreign Direct Investment inflow increased for the fourth consecutive year, growing by 46 per cent from 2006 to peak at US$105.9 billion.

For this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected a 4.5 per cent growth for Latin America and 9.7 per cent and 8 per cent growth rates for China and India respectively. The IMF also expects Asean-5 to grow by 5.6 per cent.

Speaking at the Forum, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Lim Hng Kiang, noted that with Latin America's rich natural resource base and burgeoning private sector, and Asia's strength in manufacturing and services, the areas for collaboration will continue to expand across many sectors.

Latin America's infrastructure sector has been identified as a key area for collaboration.

The Forum highlighted 20 ready-for-investment mega infrastructure projects in Latin America with a total estimated value of US$23.38 billion.

These include projects in port and logistics management; oil and gas; water/wastewater treatment and multi-modal transportation.

As part of the forum, a business matching session was also organised by BuySingapore, the national online business matching portal.

Open to all forum participants, the session serves to introduce Singapore companies, particularly local Small and Medium Enterprises, to Latin American companies in key sectors such as infrastructure, ports & logistics, automotive, and legal, to explore potential business opportunities and collaborations.

S'pore to step up engagement with Latin America
Singapore was Latin America's largest trading partner in South-east Asia last year, accounting for approximately a third of the total trade between the two regions.

In the first seven months of this year, its total trade with Latin America stood at US$10 billion, exceeding the total trade for the whole of last year (US$8.89 billion), and representing a 70 per cent jump over the previous year.

There are now close to 60 Singapore companies operating in 30 countries in Latin America.

The Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Federation of Industries of Rio Grande do Sul (FIERGS) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during the forum on Tuesday.