The “Going to Latin America” Investment Forum hosted by the China Public Diplomacy Association inaugurated at Guangzhou Imperial Springs International Conference Center on 25th 2014. Li Zhaoxing, President of CPDA, Liu Zhigeng, Vice-Governor of Guangdong Province, Liu Jianchao, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chau Wing, Chairman of the Kinghold Group, Andre Pastrana, former President of Colombia, Jorge Quiroga, former President of Bolivia, and Robert Kreimerman, Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay, delivered speeches at the opening ceremony. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, ambassadors and diplomats from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Uruguay, Cuba, Jamaica and Surinam, commercial representatives, scholars and representatives of media from China and Latin America attended this forum. Mr. Song Ronghua, Secretary-General of the China Public Diplomacy Association, presided over the opening ceremony.
Mr. Li Zhaoxing, the President of the CPDA, quoted an old Chinese poem “Knowing each other so well, We feel close even though we are far apart” (Zhang Jiuling of the Tang Dynasty) to express his shared vision of a fair and beautiful world which links China and Latin America together tightly. To encourage Chinese enterprises to know more about Latin America and to go to Latin America in a faster pace, political, commercial, academic, industrial and media representatives from China and Latin America were invited to the forum to come up with new ideas to promote the cooperation between China and Latin Amerca.
Commissioned by Zhu Xiaodan, the Governor of Guangdong Province, Liu Zhigeng, the Vice-Governor of Guangdong Province, extended his warm greetings to all the guests. As China’s largest province in population, economic and trade volume, Guangdong has huge potential to cooperate with Latin America. The trade volume between Guangdong Province and Latin America totaled 37.5 billion US dollar in 2013.
Meanwhile, Latin America has become one of the most important destinations attracting foreign investments for Guangdong Province. The provincial government will try to create sound international commercial environment to support local enterprises going to Latin America.
On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Liu Jianchao, the Assistant Minister, expressed congratulations on the successful opening of the forum and the achievements of CPDA since its inception. This forum is held just at the right time when Latin American countries are presently developing with their own features. China will attach great importance to the cooperation with Latin America as before. The Chinese Government will also endeavor to launch Sino-Latin American Cooperation Forum and hold the first ministerial meeting in Beijing this year. He hopes that local culture, tradition and laws can be respected while Chinese enterprises going to Latin America and a win-win outcome can be achieved.
Dr. Chau Chak Wing, the famous overseas Chinese leader from Australia and Chairman of the Kinghold Group, quoted a famous Chinese saying “Isn’t it a pleasure for one to have like-minded friends coming from faraway places?” (Analects of Confucius) to welcome the guests to Imperial Springs International Convention Center in his opening speech. He said that China would support the national structure of public diplomacy and build high-level platform to enhance the people-to-people exchange and promote economic cooperation between China and Latin America.
As the former President of Colombia, Andre Pastrana indicated that Latin American countries identified China as their “brother in developing countries”. The countries are willing to establish overall partnership with China. Both sides should follow the trend of international relations and seize this opportunity to get to know more about each other.
Jorge Quiroga, the former President of Bolivia, expressed that, with the improvement of China’s international influence (the increasing international influence of China ), China and Latin America should strengthen dialogue and communication and conduct(?) strategic planning to push the international order to progress in a fair and just way.
Robert Kreimerman, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay, said that China had become the main exporting country of agriculture products and minerals to many Latin America countries. China and Latin America should continue to promote bilateral relationship in the mutual benefit way and set an example for the developing countries that cooperate through a win-win solution.
Before the opening ceremony, “ China – Latin American Cooperation and Friendship Tree” was planted to symbolize the long live cooperation and friendship between two sides.
The forum will focus on such issues as macro economic situation and investment environment, policy in Latin America, and opportunities and challenges facing Chinese enterprises going to Latin America.