SANTIAGO, 17 October 2008: The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will participate in the Second China-Latin American Business Summit, “Renovating Trade Services and Strengthening Regional Cooperation” to take place on October 20-21 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, in China.
Delegates will discuss trade and investment promotion and facilitation measures among both regions. The business summit is part of a cooperation platform created by several binational chambers of commerce in China and Latin America, to which ECLAC has provided active support.
Some 800 businesspersons, high-ranking government officials and representatives of international organizations are to attend the meeting.
During the inauguration, the Director of ECLAC’s International Trade and Integration Division, Osvaldo Rosales, will present the report “Economic and Trade Relations between Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The Link with China”, prepared upon request of the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) as a contribution to the summit.
The report provides updated information on China and Latin America’s internationalization process, and suggests initiatives and forms of public-private alliances to stimulate biregional trade and investment, as well as facilitate mutual cooperation.
The volume of bilateral exchange continues to grow, surpassing for the first time100 billion US dollar in 2007. China is already an important trade partner for several Latin American economies; however, trade is generally concentrated in a few products, mostly prime materials and natural resource-based manufactures. The region imports from China almost exclusively manufactures of varying technological complexity.
Latin America faces enormous challenges in export diversification and strengthening alliances with its Asian partners. The business summit is an opportunity to advance in these contacts, and ECLAC hopes to accompany this process with studies and reports that may contribute to adopt shared strategic criteria among countries in the region in order to build more stable links, of greater social impact, with the Chinese economy.
