Uruguay

THE REGION

AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY

Uruguay is one of the four countries that comprise the MERCOSUR, together with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The "MERCOSUR" (Mercado Común del Sur) is a market of 225 million inhabitants with the highest income per capita of the continent and a GDP over USD 630 billion.
Due to its geographical location, Uruguay acts as a maritime and terrestrial link of communications among the countries of the MERCOSUR, especially ARGENTINA and BRAZIL, which responds to its geographical insertion between the richest and more developed regions of these 2 countries. Supported by the agility of its financial services, the wealth of its lands and the dense road and of telecommunications network our country functions as an easy access to the central axis of the agribusiness in the Mercosur and its projection toward other regions and countries of the world. Uruguay possesses a highly literate population of 3,3 million inhabitants with the highest income per capita of the continent and a high cultural and professional capacity when compared to the rest of the South American countries.

Uruguay: A Strategic Partner

It is in this way that the Mercosur finds in Uruguay its better gateway, that is to say, the ideal platform to start agribusiness in the region towards the rest of the world, supported at the same time by its long economic and political stability.

RELEVANT FIGURES

* MERCOSUR is the 2ND WORLD producer of Soybeans.

* Uruguay is ranked first in the world in terms of surface per capita devoted to natural production.

* More than the 75% of the Uruguayan exports correspond to Farm products and their by-products.

* Más del 75% de las exportaciones Uruguayas corresponden a productos Agropecuarios y sus derivados.

DISTANCE BETWEEN MONTEVIDEO AND OTHER CITIES

• Buenos Aires 640 km.
• Córdoba 1050 km.
• Rosario 880 km.
• San Pablo 1970 km.
• Porto Alegre 870 km.
• Asunción 1550 km.

MORE INFO

Country (official name): República Oriental de Uruguay

Capital: Montevideo

Surface: 68.039 miles 2 176.220 km2

Population: 3.360.105 inhabitants (est. july 2001)

Estimated Population in year 2050: 4.499.457 inhabitants

Languages: Spanish (official language), Portuguese, or Brazilero (mixture of Portuguese and Spanish used in the Brazilian border)

Literacy: 97,3% total; 96,9% men; 97,7% women (est. 1995)

Religions: Roman Catholic 66% (less than half of the population of adults go to the church regularly), protestant : 2%, Jewish : 1%, other/agnostic : 31%

Life expectation: Male life expectation : 72,11 years; Female life expectation: 78,96 años (est. 2001)

Type of government: Constitutional Republic

Currency: 1 Uruguayan Peso ($Ur) = 100 centesimos

GDP (per cápita): $9.300 (est. 2000)

Main Industries: Food and beverage Industries, electric machinery, transportation products, oil secondary products, textile and weaving industries, chemical products

Main Production: Agriculture (Wheat, rice, barley, corn, sorghum, seed); stockbreeding; Fishing.
Ploughed Lands: 7%

Minerals and Resources: Hidroelectricity, minerals (less importance), fishing, agriculture, cattle, wool.