Spotlight: Latin America welcomes closer ties with China: experts

Cooperation between China and Latin America is deepening rapidly in recent years and has been widely welcomed by developing countries in the American continent, officials and experts highlighted, noting closer ties with China is welcomed by Latin America.

On the occasion of a forum launched here Friday by OECD (the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) Development Center about Lain America and the Caribbean's economy, Xinhua interviewed various experts and senior officials to explain the trend.

"I'm very pleased to see China and Latin America are getting closer in a very strategic way," said Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Barcena Ibarra, adding that the volume of exchange of goods between China and Latin America has grown by nearly 21 times between 2000 and 2013.

China's policy corresponds to the needs of Latin America, said Barcena, introducing that from last year to less than two weeks ago, Chinese leaders have announced clearly the Sino-Latin American cooperation will not be limited in exchange of goods, but to be expanded through investment, trade and financial cooperation to more areas as infrastructure, natural resources, food security, manufacturing, etc..

Another signal which reflects the mutual trust between China and Latin America is that Chinese loans for Latin America have no conditions, "which is a very good news for Latin America, because Latin America has been always very conditioned by the IMF and the world bank and everyone," said Barcena.

"We can see that the will of China is getting closer to Latin America, understanding the needs of Latin America," she noted.

Meanwhile, Enrique Garcia, president of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), said "I admire what China has done and China's presence in Latin-America diversifies more."

In his opinion, China will be an important provider of good quality investment.

"Latin America needs to invest a proportion to do a good job. It has to invest, in my opinion, a minimum of 300-400 billion dollars a year (for infrastructure construction). Or it won't be sufficient. So it's very important to attract resources from abroad, not only loans, but direct investments," he said.

The launching of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) "is a very good initiative and I hope that our bank could have some type of relationship in the future", said Enrique.

An OECD expert said the partnership with China helps countries in Latin America maintain a continuous development.

China has made great contributions to the development of Latin American countries in recent years as an important element to help Latin America maintain a continuous development, said Mario Pezzini, director of the OECD Development Centre, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

While a number of developed countries have been mired in an economic crisis since 2008, developing countries in Latin America have managed to maintain "a significant growth rate," Pezzini said.

Regarding why these countries had much resilience in the face of the crisis, Pezzini said that apart from improving macro-economic policies and the magnification of the middle class, the partnership with China was also an important element that is "undoubtedly useful."

The figures speak for themselves: the trade volume between China and the countries of Latin America have reached more than 260 billion U.S. dollars, and China's investments have amounted to over 80 billion dollars in 2014, according to China's official statistics. Enditem