Roundup: Chinese premier says feasibility study to begin on South America's transcontinental railway

China, Brazil and Peru have decided to conduct a feasibility study on a proposed transcontinental railway line connecting Peru's Pacific coast with Brazil's Atlantic coast, visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here on Friday.

The three countries have also agreed to speed up the work of their joint working group for an early, substantial progress in the project, so as to drive the economic development along the railway line and accelerate industrialization and urbanization in South America under the condition of environmental protection and biological diversity, Li told reporters after talks with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.

Peru is the third leg of the premier's four-nation tour to Latin America after Brazil and Colombia. He will also visit Chile.

Li said that during his ongoing visit, he and leaders of Brazil, Colombia and Peru agreed to build new highlights in pragmatic cooperation in such fields as trade investment, industrial capacity cooperation, equipment manufacturing, and infrastructure construction.

The premier pointed out that China has accumulated a great deal of experience in railway construction, saying Chinese-made equipment has enjoyed advantages of high safety and cost performance ratios and has stood the test of international market competitions.

The Chinese side is willing to actively take part in building the transcontinental railway line and rail transit projects in relevant countries, strengthen technology transfer while conducting cooperation in equipment and other areas, boost interconnection in South America, promote regional economic development, and better realize mutually-beneficial and win-win results, he said.

Humala described Li's visit to Peru as a great event in the history of development of Peru-China relations, saying the Peruvian side is willing to keep expanding cooperation with China.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the feasibility study on the transcontinental railway line, which has consolidated and lifted the Peru-China friendly relationship of cooperation to higher levels, he said.

The MoU will help Peru realize better development and boost common development and prosperity of Peru, Brazil, China and the region, Humala said.

During the two leaders' talks earlier in the day, Li told Humala that China and Peru should make a forward-looking design, based on existing free trade arrangements, to advance their cooperation in industrial capacity and equipment manufacturing.

The Chinese side will capitalize on the competitiveness of its industrial capacity and advanced technologies in railway and ports construction, electric power generation and transmission, and telecommunications to actively participate in such big infrastructure projects as the proposed transcontinental railway line, facilitate technology transfers and experience sharing, and help improve Peru's equipment manufacturing capability and job creation, he said.

The China-Peru cooperation in industrial capacity and equipment manufacturing is open to any third party with a goal to seek win-win and all-win results, Li said.

Li's insight was echoed by Humala, who said Peru highly values its relationship with China and is willing to make joint efforts with China to push forward their comprehensive strategic partnership.

Construction of the transcontinental railway line will be significant to Peru, Brazil and China as well as the regional economy, and China's participation therein is indispensable, he said.

Peru welcomes China's investment in mining and other industries and technology transfer, which will benefit Peru's industrialization, Humala said, adding that both sides could deepen cooperation in the fields of agriculture, fishery, housing construction and renewable energy and strengthen exchanges in education, tourism and culture.

After the talks, the two sides signed cooperation agreements on industrial capacity, energy, mining, infrastructure construction, quarantine, healthcare and aerospace.

They also issued a joint statement, underlining the consensus reached between the two countries on bilateral ties and pragmatic cooperation, as well as international and regional issues of common concern.

China and Peru agreed to tap the potential of bilateral trade, and fully use their free trade pact to promote sustainable and stable growth of bilateral trade and address trade frictions through friendly negotiation, the statement said.

The China-Peru trade volume reached 14.32 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 after the bilateral free trade pact took effect in 2010. By the end of 2014, Chinese investment in Peru totaled 14.24 billion dollars. Endi