LATAM-CHINA COOPERATION FORUM SIGNIFICANT STEP: CHILEAN EXPERT

Santiago, January 29 (Xinhua)- The proposed creation of a Latin America-China Cooperation Forum represents a significant step forward in relations between the two sides, a China expert has said.

The forum, an idea put forward by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), "is a very important political and economic decision, and significant for the region's ties with the great Asian country," Chile's former ambassador to China and current director of the Latin American Center for China Studies, Fernando Reyes Matta, told Xinhua in an interview.

The proposal was made by the 33 member countries of CELAC in the lead-up to the bloc's second summit, a two-day event that opened yesterday in Havana, Cuba, and is expected to be ratified today.

The forum "will help consolidate, strengthen and give an institutional structure to the cooperation between the region's countries and the Asian country," according to the proposal, described by the Cuban government as a "far-reaching" agreement.

Since 2008, Reyes said, China has expressed the need for greater dialogue between the two regions based on a document titled "White paper for China's ties with Latin America and the Caribbean”.

"So far, there has been no collective answer to the Chinese proposal and only some countries, such as Chile, have made proposals on how to move forward in strengthening ties with China," said Reyes.

The former ambassador noted that in 2011, then vice president and current President of China Xi Jinping called for greater Chinese-Latin American cooperation during his visit to the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago.

In June 2012, former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, also in Santiago, proposed a long-term work agenda and announced the creation of a fund to develop joint projects with the region's countries.

"This new cooperation forum from CELAC, which is an organization of political representation and regional coordination, assures the opening of a new level of dialogue between Latin America and the Caribbean with China, while it opens a space for interaction between both parties on new interests," he added.

The new forum will help achieve progress in the exchanges between both sides and has a "far-reaching" scope because it will open the door to future ties, the expert noted.

"During the Havana summit, Cuba will transfer CELAC's presidency to Costa Rica, which is one of the three Latin American countries which have free trade agreements with China, together with Chile and Peru. Therefore, the vision and understanding that Costa Rica has to assure new relations with China are important," he said.

"The forum will expand not only the outlook of trade ties, (including) how many products Latin America sells to China or how many we purchase from them, but it will also help to open a range of new issues of interest to both China and the region," said Reyes.

Among these issues are environment, energy, sustainable development and urbanization, as well as such political matters as the growing demands of the middle class, youth and advanced technology research.

"These are areas in which cooperation between China and Latin America can increase," said Reyes.

He also recalled that during his visit to ECLAC, Wen proposed the creation of a China-Latin America Agricultural Cooperation Forum at the ministerial level based on the creation of a fund for joint agricultural projects.

"Latin America has the capacity to create the conditions to achieve faster agricultural production and better technological conditions than the ones it currently has, so it can respond to China's growing demand," said Reyes.

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