INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, China has steered its foreign policy towards strengthening cooperation with its main partners in the trade, financial and infrastructural areas. As evidence of this, noteworthy are the “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) and the “Production Cooperation Abroad” initiatives. Despite covering different geographical areas – OBOR is limited to Eurasia, while the second initiative is global – they share the goal of promoting the development of the parties involved, which reflects China’s willingness to forge a new model of globalization based on cooperation.
One of the key regions for this new aspect of China’s foreign policy is Latin America and the Caribbean, with which the Asian nation has developed important bilateral and financial ties over the past years. These ties have enhanced its strategic value after the visit of President Xi Jinping to the region in November 2016, when the Chinese Head of State and leaders from the region established bilateral negotiations. This laid the foundations for a new framework for trade integration between China and the region’s countries making up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC).
In view of the political will of China and Latin American and Caribbean countries and the existence of investment platforms, trade relations and multilateral financing networks, it is necessary to maximize the impact of this cooperation on the local economic development.
In order to pursue that goal, the academic network RED ALC-CHINA, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and CAF-development bank of Latin America have organized the “Fourth International Seminar Latin America and the Caribbean and China: Conditions and Challenges in the XXI Century”, which will present an update of the various forms of economic and cooperation of the dynamics between Latin America and the Caribbean and the People's Republic of China.
Within the framework of this seminar, the Permanent Secretariat of SELA has prepared a panel of experts on the internationalization of SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose main purpose is to bring together leading representatives of business associations, academicians and public sector officials who will address various matters related to trade, financial and cooperation opportunities, as well as the main challenges faced by Latin American SMEs in China's economy. The panel will take into account the special features of the regional business ecosystem and its contrasts with the Chinese business model, highlighting the best practices of various associations of the region in forging commercial, financial and knowledge links with counterparts in the People's Republic of China.
The thematic axis “Economy, trade and investment”, during which the aforementioned panel will be presented, focuses on the analysis of the relationship between LAC and China at the macroeconomic, mesoeconomic (or institutional) and microeconomic (business) levels. Within this context, the Permanent Secretariat has created a space that will highlight the opportunities and challenges faced by the region’s SMEs in that Asian economy, considering five topics. The first two topics deal with the main characteristics of Chinese and Latin American SMEs, respectively, in terms of their competitiveness and productive structure. The third topic addresses the role of the State in outlining policies aimed at promoting exports leading to the productive chaining of SMEs, providing examples of successful strategies and suggestions as regards best practices. The fourth and fifth topics present concrete analyses of the current opportunities in LAC-China cooperation, on the basis of recent case studies in which SMEs in the region have managed to succeed in the Chinese market, specifically the cases of Argentina and Uruguay.
This event will feature presentations by representatives of public and private agencies interested in identifying and disseminating opportunities within the context of LAC-China cooperation. For this reason, we consider that this seminar constitutes a perfect setting to establish strategic relationships that can serve as a basis for the future development of cooperation programmes. Thus, the Permanent Secretariat promotes the exchange of views on the challenges and opportunities faced by SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean during this stage of commercial and financial rapprochement with the People's Republic of China.
