Spotlight: Latin America seeks closer commercial links with China

Latin American countries have been seeking closer commercial links with China as the latter moves from being the world's factory to an innovation pioneer, said Sebastian Rovira, the representative of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Peru, on Monday.

The two sides have boosted their bilateral trade by 22 times since 2000, Rovira said at the release of a new study called "Latin American Economic Outlook 2016: Towards a new Partnership with China."

"Latin America has much more to offer and can develop new capacities requested by the Chinese market," he said.

According the official, the Asian giant will remain one of the most attractive markets for Latin America, beyond simply being a destination for raw material exports.

Loans from China to the region have reached 94 billion U.S. dollars in the last 10 years, making China the top financier, the ECLAC representative said.

Julio Chan, the Peruvian coordinator at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, said Latin America must follow China's changes to continue with this virtuous circle.

"The relations between China and Latin America can advance through the development of a higher capacity for innovation, in public and private sectors," he said.

"Relations with China are currently positive, because we have developed certain synergies. For this virtuous circle to grow, it is very important that this continues to be the case," added Chan.

"China is now the largest trading partner for Brazil, Chile and Peru. However, this is focused on raw materials, which represent 73 percent of the region's exports to China," he pointed out.

According to the ECLAC report, China's deep socio-economic transformation will bring about challenges and opportunities for Latin America.

It highlighted that foodstuff, services and tourism could particularly stand to benefit. Endi