China Voice: Premier's trip tightens China-Brazil ties

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's four-day trip to Brazil, which wrapped up Thursday, has resulted in broader cooperation between the two major emerging economies.

Brazil was the initial leg of Li's first trip to Latin America since he assumed the premiership in 2013. When President Xi Jinping visited the nation back in July 2014, the two sides decided to further deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership.

Frequent high-level exchanges reflect the comprehensive and accelerated way in which bilateral relations have grown in recent years.

During Li's trip, China and Brazil signed more than 30 agreements and a joint action plan, which included trade agreements worth about 27 billion U.S. dollars.

China has entered a new normal of slower economic growth, while Brazil is struggling to reboot its economy, which almost came to a stagnation last year due to falling prices of raw materials and external demand.

Against this backdrop, it is meaningful that China and Brazil agreed to increase cooperation on industrial capacity. It will link China's production capacity and competitiveness in equipment manufacturing with Brazil's economic development and demand for industrial investment, which will be conducive to mutual benefit, win-win results and common development.

In July 2014, China pledged to raise investment in the region to at least 250 billion dollars over the next decade. Brazil, as a leading economy in the region, will definitely benefit from China's plan.

The prospects for bilateral cooperation are bright as China-made subway cars and ferries, which are of high quality and are reasonably priced, have been welcomed by the Brazilian people.

It is also proved by a joint statement in which the Chinese side announced that the approval process for importing the first 22 out of 60 Brazilian-made planes under a purchase deal signed in July 2014 had been completed. The two countries also vowed to expand beef, pork and poultry trade as well as financial cooperation.

All these moves are expected to shore up bilateral trade volume, which has been losing momentum. Though China has been Brazil's largest trading partner for the past six years, bilateral trade in 2014 posted a 4-percent drop from the year before, standing at 86.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Trade, however, is just one aspect of the deepening bilateral ties. Though half a world apart, China and Brazil have continued to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges in recent years, with increasing pragmatic cooperation in this field.

During Xi's visit to Brazil, he announced the provision of 6,000 government scholarships for Latin American and Caribbean nations in five years, in addition to a training program for 6,000 people from the region.

Brazil, in the meantime, plans to send 5,000 students to China under a project named "Science Without Borders". Currently, there are 10 Confucius Institutes in Brazil, with two Confucius classrooms at other institutions.

Increased communication among the people of the two nations will deepen cultural understanding and consolidate ties.

As two developing nations with a combined population of more than 1.5 billion, the common development of China and Brazil will not only help them cope with their respective challenges, but also contribute to the recovery of the world economy. Endi