China offers LAC development dividend

Owolabi Elabanjo, chief extension officer at the Ministry of Agriculture of Antigua and Barbuda, still recalls the impact of a month-long training program last year that introduced cutting-edge Chinese agricultural practices to his island nation.

Organized in partnership with China's Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co, the hands-on training focused on pepper breeding, corn cultivation and seed production.

"It not only offered new seed varieties from China, but also technical expertise of a kind that opened my mind and reshaped my understanding of food production, food security and nutrition," Elabanjo said.

In the Caribbean country, many farmers are now adopting the technologies which were shared and are applying technical information provided by China, he said.

The knowledge and skills gained will definitely improve the agricultural development of Antigua and Barbuda, a country that is yet to attain food self-sufficiency and youth development in the sector, Elabanjo said.

The program marked an important step in Antigua and Barbuda's efforts to modernize its agriculture sector, said Walter Christopher, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, expressing the hope that the training would boost crop yields and help raise the agricultural sector's GDP contribution from 2 to 5 percent over the next five years.

China has increasingly sought to share its experience in agricultural modernization with Latin American and Caribbean countries through technology transfer and training programs, making the region a growing focal point for South-South cooperation.

The nation's broader efforts to bolster South-South cooperation show that the modernization China is pursuing is not for the country alone, but is for all developing countries through joint efforts, according to analysts.

Qi Yiming, a researcher from the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the successful experience of Chinese modernization demonstrates that there is no single path to modernization.

"China does not export a 'China model', but sincerely shares its development experience," he said, adding that as developing countries, China and LAC nations should advance their own development through practical innovation and theoretical exploration rooted in their realities.

At the same time, the two sides should continue to carry out exchanges and cooperation to jointly advance modernization, he said.

Last year, trade between China and LAC countries exceeded $500 billion for the first time, a 40-fold increase from the beginning of this century.

At the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum held in Beijing in May, the two sides pledged to deepen cooperation in areas such as investment, infrastructure, agriculture and food security, energy and mineral resources, clean energy, 5G communications, the digital economy and artificial intelligence.

China also pledged to provide CELAC member states with 10,000 training opportunities, and to initiate 300 "small and beautiful" livelihood projects in the region.

From establishing agricultural demonstration parks and constructing highways and ports to exporting electric vehicles, as well as building eco-friendly light industrial parks and photovoltaic farms, China and the LAC region have not only deepened cooperation in traditional sectors, but have also expanded it into emerging fields.

Ruben Yaguari Garcia Sandoval, a professor of international relations at the Private University of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, said that thanks to large-scale investment from China, LAC countries are enjoying unprecedented development opportunities.

China serves as a catalyst for LAC countries' modernization and transformation, and it is essential to fully leverage this cooperative opportunity, he said.

The region is not merely a supplier of natural resources, but can also become a provider of advanced technology and an active participant in shared development, he added.

Claudio Coloma, assistant professor and researcher at the University of the Americas in Chile, praised China's pragmatic approach to governance, noting that the Chinese leadership has consistently prioritized the welfare of its people in pursuing national development.

LAC countries have to understand China's cooperation model as the country offers a completely different view of understanding international relations and politics, he said, adding that "as long as we understand how the Chinese see and think about the world, we can find the way to increase our engagement".

He said that he hopes Chilean ports might one day reach the same standards as those in China, with Chinese companies investing and operating in the country in a way that contributes to local development.

He rejected claims that China's growing presence in the LAC region is a form of neocolonialism. "I do think that China's engagement with the Global South is in good faith."

Cooperation between China and the Global South is based on the principle of win-win cooperation, he said, calling on LAC countries to join China in clearly telling the West that their intention is not to provoke conflict but to advocate fairer cooperation that will benefit the people and overcome serious problems such as poverty.

Xu Xiujun, a senior research fellow of the National Academy of Chinese Modernization at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China always stands with the Global South in safeguarding their interests no matter how the world changes.

The series of initiatives proposed by China and the mechanisms China participates in, such as the Global Development Initiative and BRICS, aim to promote the development of the Global South and enhance its voice in the international arena, Xu said.

This is one of the defining characteristics of China's approach in international cooperation, he said.

For LAC countries, choosing to cooperate with China is a choice for development and stability, and a choice for mutually beneficial cooperation, he said.