Chinese financing boosts Sino-LatAm cooperation

BUENOS AIRES -- China's ambassador to Argentina, Yang Wanming, suggests Latin American nations make the best use of the financing offered by China as part of integral bilateral cooperation.

"The Chinese government has established a line of credit amounting to $20 billion, exclusively to fund infrastructure projects in Latin American countries," said Yang, addressing a seminar on China-Argentina relations, organized by the Political, Economic and Social Studies Foundation for the New Argentina (FEPESNA) in Buenos Aires.

In addition, China has helped create the China-Latin America Cooperation Fund, financed with $5 billion, and another 50 billion-dollar fund especially for joint agricultural projects between the two regions.

"I think Latin American entrepreneurs can make the most of the opportunity to strengthen their connection with their Chinese counterparts," said Yang.

The ambassador invited participants "to explore the potential for cooperation, by taking advantage of institutional mechanisms."

To that end, said Yang, China and LatAm countries are working to organize a business forum "to promote bilateral economic and investment cooperation," as well as "expand industrial cooperation" and "jointly take the global industrial chain to a higher level."

In the case of Argentina, said Yang, "many pioneering bilateral projects have been launched with the help of cooperation financing," and more opportunities lie ahead, as both two nations pursue their national development goals.

To spur economic development, "in China today we give greater importance to quality, efficiency and intensive development," said Yang. "At the same time, Argentina's government is working on modernizing, implementing the 'Argentina 2020' development strategy."

"The similarity in objectives and development orientation, as well as the complementarity of the conditions and necessities of both countries, offer Sino-Argentinean cooperation an immense market, exceptional investment opportunities and greater potentialities," said the ambassador, adding bilateral relations are expected to "move forward at great strides."

"Thanks to the parallel development of mutual investment, financial cooperation and the creation of institutional mechanisms, the economic and trade ties between the two countries have increasingly become integrated," Yang told the seminar participants.

"We are willing to continue diversifying the portfolio of imports from Argentina, and working with you to promote other businesses, to increase the added value of bilateral trade," Yang said.