 Let me hold slowly. We have that today, Ambassador Carlos Corrales, who is the ambassador of Peru to Singapore. Welcome to the show, Mr. Ambassador. Thank you very much for your invitation. It's a pleasure to talk to you again. Thank you. Well, Mr. Ambassador, since the last time I saw you, a lot has happened in the world. Of course, I'm talking about the pandemic. Tell us what is the situation like on the ground in Peru? Well, since March, when the first case was registered officially in my country, the Peruvian government decided in the middle of March to apply one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. It was a very long lockdown of three months since the middle of March until the middle three months and a half until the end of June. But the problem is that a lot of people in my country work in the so-called informal sector. So they need to work every day to have an income. So for them, it was a little bit difficult to comply all the rules of the government in terms of staying at home. And for that reason, in spite of the lockdown, a lot of Peruvians were affected by the disease, particularly in some specific towns in the Amazon jungle and the Indian mountains and in some specific districts in the outskirts of Lima. Well, the situation was very bad in spite of the lockdown since July until September, when we reach a very difficult peak of 10,000 cases every day. But now the situation is much better. We are reaching a level of a little bit less than 1,000 cases every day. It is still high, but not as high as in the past. And some epidemiologists of Peru and some others from very important countries such as United Kingdom consider that perhaps in some specific areas of Peru in some towns, in the Amazon jungle in particular, perhaps we have reached the level of herd immunity. Why? Because apparently between 50 and 60% of the population in those towns were affected or infected by the disease. And of course, in those towns very young people live. So, you know, the most affected people in this case are all people and people with pre-existence diseases. So the situation now is, I think, in the process of stabilisation. And we have something in favour. Summer is about to begin in the southern hemisphere in one week. So apparently in summer, the spread of the disease is not as high as in the winter. And we are waiting, of course, for the vaccines. Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear that things are getting a little bit better. Talking about the vaccine, I know that a few days ago, Peru suspended the clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm. Yes. Because there was an adverse effect in one of the volunteers. Is that correct? Yes, is that correct? No? Yes, we propose the Chinese government to have a trial of the vaccine in Peru. And until very recently, the trial was very successful, but one case has emerged. And well, we have suspended for the time being this trial. And that my government is willing to continue this trial perhaps in two more weeks to have access to the Chinese vaccine, perhaps in the first quarter of next year. And of course, we are very interested in the Sinopharm. Well, we're very interested in the vaccines that have been already applied in the Western countries, particularly in United Kingdom and in Canada. But we have to wait a longer time to have access to those vaccines perhaps by the middle of next year. Well, I think it's very wise of the Peruvian government to suspend the trials, because as much as we need the vaccine, we want to ensure their safety. So until further investigation can be done. If you have only one case that has to face some complications, you have to utilize a universe of, I don't know, 30,000 people. So it's not very dangerous, but you know, you have to. You've got to be careful to be very cautious. Right. Well, let's shift gears and talk about trade. I know that even though Asia dwarfs Latin America in terms of population and GDP, with Asia's rising middle class, there's also been an increasing demand for diversified goods. And you know, with the supply chain disruption brought on by the pandemic, that has also accentuated the need for, you know, more diversified supply chain. What kind of opportunities do you see for Latin America in this enlarging market demand? Yes, individually, bilaterally, every Latin American country don't have a lot of possibilities to reinforce their economic links with Asia if you act only individually. For that reason, we have initiated three years ago a negotiation with Singapore, the Pacific Alliance countries, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile, to have a free trade agreement with the Singaporean market. But to utilize Singapore, not only as a single market, but to utilize Singapore as a logistics platform through the distribution of our exports to the rest of the region of Southeast Asia and perhaps North East Asia too, you know. So we have been very lucky because recently, these block of countries in Singapore have reached a level of substantial conclusion of those negotiations. We are supposed to finish these negotiations in the first quarter of next year and perhaps we were in the conditions of signing the agreement by April-May next year. What is the added value of this agreement regarding the Asian markets? Well, Peru has a very long time, a free trade agreement with Singapore since 2009, you know, what our trade with Singapore has increased at a level of 23% as an average every year since the signature of this very important agreement for the Peruvian market. Chile has a free trade agreement with Singapore too, you know, but in the context of the P4 countries that paved the way for the TPP, that now has become the CPTPP, you know, and Mexico has a free trade agreement with Singapore too. The only country that doesn't have a free trade agreement by largely speaking with Singapore is Colombia. So the added value of this agreement of this block of four countries in Singapore is that we can promote the establishment of regional supply chains within the block of these four countries, you know. Because we can take advantage of the accumulation of rules of origin, we have standardized our rules of origin through this agreement. We have specific rules of origin with Singapore, while in the bilateral agreement, and there are different standards with the other countries. But now, we have had only one regime of accumulation of rules of origin, and that paved the way, in my opinion, to the establishment of very important new supply chains at the regional level regarding our trade exchange with Singapore, and Singapore is very, very interested in Latin America as a supplier of food. The Singaporean government is trying to develop a sort of ecosystem for innovation of food industry in the little red dot here in the island, and I have had some conversation with the former Minister of State of Trade, Mr. Chihon Tat that now is the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs here in Singapore, and recently I had a meeting with a new Minister of State of Trade, Mr. Alvin Tan, that is a very young, promising... Yeah, his he is our advising star, he is our advising star. And they are really very interested in the possibility of having access to some food that are considered superfood, in terms of this nutritional content, these nutritional advantages for the Singaporean population, and not only for the Singaporean population, but for the rest of the consumers here in Southeast Asia. It's good to hear that there is a focus on agricultural products, but I know that for the longest time, most of Latin American trade has depended on export of petroleum gas and natural resources through mining, right? But with the shift towards renewables due to environmental concerns, is Latin America following that shift towards renewables? Yes, we are very interested through this agreement in reinforcing our cooperation with Singapore and some other countries here in Asia to develop renewable sources of energy in our countries. So we are talking about solar energy, we are talking about wind energy, hydroelectric energy, instead of energy that is produced by fossil fuels, oil in particular. No, Peru is not a great producer of oil, we don't export oil, instead of that we import oil, but we produce gas, we export gas, and we export mainly minerals. But we are in the process of diversifying the economic structure of our country, we cannot depend only on minerals, because the production of minerals have two specific problems in Peru. A pollution that is produced by this kind of industry. And well, in not all the companies that have involved in the mining sector in Peru are producers of pollutants that can contaminate the surrounding landscape, so they can affect the interest of some native communities that are very close to the mines. And this is one of the problem. And the second problem is the need to take into consideration the demands of the population that is affected by these mines, by the production of these mines. So, we need to solve those problems. First, before increasing the production of minerals to be exported to the rest of the world, there are two very important mines that are in hands of Chinese companies in the country. Toromacho, the copper mine, Toromacho and Lasbambas. These mines have faced some problems in the last few years. Sorry to interrupt you here, sorry to interrupt you, when you say they are in the hands of the Chinese companies, do they own these mines in Peru? Well, they have received concessions to exploit those mines for a period of 40 years. Yes, for a period of 40 years. After that period, of course, the mines are going to give them back to Peru. And how many years are we talking about? How many years have they been? In the case of Toromacho, already 10 years. In the case of Lasbambas, between five and six years. But these Chinese companies are responsible for approximately 30% of the production, of the whole production of copper in my country. Those investments are so important. But of course, we have as partners, as foreign partners for the mining sector, we have some companies from Canada. We have some companies from the UK. We have some companies from Australia. We have some companies from Canada, but also from sea from South Africa too, that are operating in my country, not only Chinese ones. But in the case of these Chinese ones, the situation was a little bit difficult. But China is our first trade partner. So we need to be very cautious in our relations with China. China is a very important partner of my country in terms of exports and in terms of investment. So we need to cut very cautiously our relations with China. And I think that's the dilemma that is facing every country in the world in this strategic rivalry between China and the United States. Peru and Latin America naturally were under the influence of the hegemon that is located in the northern part of our continent, United States, that has been a very important country in terms of its influence, historically speaking, in Latin America. But in the last few years, a lot of countries in Latin America have developed a very, very good economic relations with China. And China has become the first trade partner of very important countries in Latin America, well, Brazil. Brazil has China as its first trade partner. And I think that Argentina, Peru, Chile, well, Argentina, no, Argentina is still, I think, Brazil. But China is going to take over very soon. I think as one of the most open economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, let's just call it LAC country. Peru has done a great job in prioritizing FTAs to promote export-led growth, fueled by the country's natural resources. Would you say there's at least 25 FTAs between Asia-Pac and Latin America now, at least 25? Yes, we have designed three trade agreements with a lot of countries in Asia. We have a very old connection, as you know, with Asia. Well, historically speaking, we have a very large Chinese community in Peru, we have a very large Japanese community in Peru. So Asia was not a very far away, culturally speaking continent. Well, we were familiarized with the Asian culture for a very long time. And in diplomatic and political terms, we were very interested in developing on rainforest links with Asia. For that reason, in the beginning of the 90s, we developed a diplomatic strategy to become part of APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Fund. And Peru was one of the last countries to be admitted as a full economy member of APEC, along with Russia and Vietnam in 1998, were the last three countries to become members of APEC. And since that time, we have reinforced very actively and very strongly our links with Asia in general. We negotiated long time ago a pre-trade agreement, only three conscribed to boots with Thailand, for example. After that, we initiated our negotiations to become a pre-trade agreement in Singapore in 2007. And finally, we signed agreement in 2008, and it's enforced since 2009. We have a pre-trade agreement, bilaterally speaking, with Australia. And we have pre-trade agreements with Japan and Korea. We negotiated, it was a very difficult negotiation, but finally concluded satisfactorily with China in 2008, along with the negotiation that we had developed with Singapore. And now Peru is a partner of the CPTPP. So we have not ratified the agreement yet, we are in that process. But through the CPTPP, Peru is going to have free access to new markets, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Runei. Malaysia and New Zealand. So our battery, if you want, our range of pre-trade agreements with Asia is very large. And we have been able to ensure preferential access to all these markets. So for that reason, we are very happy. The problem is that the free trade agreement is not enough. The free trade agreement establishes the rules for the economic, for the private sector to begin to play in the new markets. And well, for our, for some, our private companies are a little bit afraid of the huge Asian market that is so, so far away. They prefer to negotiate with the companies that are in the neighboring countries of Europe or the United States. But some small and medium enterprises are really very interested in diversifying as an effect of the pandemic. So the European market and the American market is a little bit, a little bit depressed. And now the Asian markets are going to recover very fast in 2021. So for that reason, just to add to that, Mr. Ambassador, if you don't mind me raising this, not really a problem, but maybe more of a concern. What I've observed is that it seems that almost all the formal agreements with Asia are undertaken by the Pacific Alliance Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico. So my question is, how can we prevent this further divergence between these four countries and the rest of the LAC countries because they seem to have very few if any activities with Asia. How can we bring the rest on board because I don't think you have to have to uneven a participation right don't you agree. How can we bring them on board. Yes. Well, you know, the largest economy in Latin America is the Brazilian. It's a huge country. And Brazil, during the government on Mr. Lula, was very interested in reinforcing its links with South America. Brazil created a sort of community of South American States, the Union of South American States, and Brazil was the leader of this initiative. And apart from that, there is a common market that is comprised of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, its name is Mercosur. But they have some problems among themselves. So, does the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur, do they talk to each other? Do they collaborate? Yes, there are four countries that are in front of the Pacific Ocean. And on the other side, you have these other four countries that are very close to the Atlantic Ocean, so Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Of course, we have established a dialogue between the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur to widen our markets to these very important countries. Peru has a free trade agreement with Brazil, Peru, there's an individual country, you know, and we have a free trade agreement with Argentina, but not the block of the four countries of the Pacific Alliance. So, I think, and some of the economic sectors of Brazil and Argentina are still protected by some rules that are still enforced in these countries. So they are not very wide open to foreign investment, like other countries such as Chile and Peru. So I think that they need to review their policies and to assess if it's convenient for them to have a more open access to international markets and to allow a more active participation of foreign companies as investors in their economies. Mr. Macri, the former president of Argentina was in that way, but now with the election of Mr. Fernandez and the situation has changed a little bit. And in the case of Brazil, the government of Bolsonaro considered that the main trade partner of Brazil should be the United States. In spite of the fact that the main trade partner of Brazil is in real terms. But I think that they need to evaluate all this situation. But in spite of the political will of the current Brazilian government, the real situation is that China is a very important trade partner of Brazil and is going to be that way for a very, very long time. Yeah, I don't think we can deny the fact. I mean, it took Asia just two decades to become the second largest trading partner of Latin America and to own two-thirds of its FDI investment stocks. I mean, so many opportunities exist between Latin America and Asia. But you know, with opportunities come challenges. What are some of the current and upcoming challenges you see in this LAC-Asia relationship? Challenges. Yes, we need to develop our productivity and competitiveness as countries in Latin America to be at the same level of some countries here in Southeast Asia. So we need some time at least of policies that need to be applied consistently for a long period of time in our countries to reach better levels of productivity and competitiveness. And that's the situation of my country in particular. We have approved last 2019 a new plan for competitiveness and productivity that is going to be applied for a period of three years. And we have for the first time in the whole history of my country, we have approved a plan to improve infrastructure. I think that infrastructure is one of the challenges that Latin America is facing in its relations with Asia. Well, there is a long distance between Latin America and Asia. So we have not been able to establish direct maritime routes between some of the countries of the Pacific Alliance and Asia. We need to, at least in the case of Peru, while the ships that transport our exports need to go to Panama or to the United States and from them to China or to Japan or to Southeast Asia. So, and our ports are not developed enough. So we need, there is a good news in the case of Peru. China is building in a very, in a port that is located very close to El Callao, that is the main port of Lima, a new port. Now, its name is going to be Chiang Kai, a Peruvian mining company is a partner of this Chinese initiative and is going to be a port to export mainly minerals and some other products. And the Chinese government is going to, they have told our government that they are willing to establish some direct maritime routes between Chiang Kai, the port of Chiang Kai and the port of Tianjin in China. So, I think that's a good news in terms of the development of our infrastructure. We need to have more roads, we need to have more railways, all along the Peruvian coast. So, if we are able to develop our infrastructure in the period in the next 10 years, I think we're going to have in a much better position to have a more interesting trade exchange investments with the Asian countries in particular. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Ambassador, you know, our time is up, I wish we could keep talking. But thank you so much. And before we go, I just want to congratulate Peru to on the accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. I think we need to bring a toast to that. And to the upcoming signing of the FTA between Singapore and the Pacific Alliance. Yes, and the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Peru. So, lots of congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time today. And I hope that the two regions and the two countries can continue this positive trend in collaboration, business and trade. I am optimistic. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Goodbye.