Interview: China's contributions to world produce major effect on developing nations

China's contributions to the world, as mentioned by President Xi Jinping at the UN in September, have a major effect on the developing nations, especially those in Latin America and the Caribbean, said a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Xi mentioned China's achievements and contributions to the world, including having lifted 439 million people out of poverty, Zhou Minkang noted in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Over the past 60-plus years, China has provided 166 countries and international organizations with nearly 400 billion yuan (about 63 billion U.S. dollars) worth of assistance, and dispatched over 600,000 aid workers, more than 700 of whom have given their lives in helping the development of other countries, Zhou added.

The expert said, however, the most important thing is not the past but the future.

He added that, among the promises Xi has made to assist the development of other countries, many are directly related to the developing nations, especially those in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For example, China pledged to set up a fund, with an initial contribution of 2 billion U.S. dollars, to support South-South cooperation and assist developing countries in implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, Zhou noted.

The expert said that China's sustainable economic development allowed its government to open the country's markets to agricultural, energy and manufactured goods from Latin America and the Caribbean, which has helped boost the region's development and prosperity, as well as promote understanding between the two sides.

Zhou said that, when it comes to the questions of Latin America and the Caribbean, Western media tended to highlight how China buys raw materials from them, without mentioning China is the main engine for their economic, social and commercial development and a key source of direct foreign investment.

He also stressed that China is a major force behind the social and environmental changes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"What I want to show is that, besides all the contributions President Xi highlighted in the United Nations, China has also contributed in a positive way to the environmental aspect in Latin America and the Caribbean, with Chile being a case in point," said Zhou.

"Since the start of the millennium, Chile has suffered a shortage of solar panels, but in 2013 it imported 40.9 million dollars' worth of panels from China," he said.

Though solar energy occupied only a small portion of the energy production in Chile, it is on the point of expending rapidly, he said.

"I believe that the increase in commerce and direct Chinese investment in the region will allow the Chinese government to make more contributions, as well as aid in social and environmental issues," he said.

"We cannot forget that China is and will continue to be a developing country for the coming decades. However, while developing its own country, the Chinese government has not forgotten to make its economic achievements benefit other nations in the world," Zhou said. Endi