Sino-LatAm co-op in production capacity new point of convergence

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang boards the Sugar Loaf Mountain ferry in Rio de Janeiro on May 20, 2015. The ferry was made in China and is named after one of Rio's biggest tourist attractions and has a capacity of 2,000 passengers. [Photo/Xinhua]

In this new stage, the interests of the two sides converge in new areas beyond trade, said Wu Baiyi, director of the Latin America Institute under China's Academy of Social Sciences.

"Now cooperation in production capacity has become the new point of convergence for their (China and Latin America's) interests," Wu said.

The industrial transformation in Latin America is a process in which China will be able to participate with greater enthusiasm, Wu said.

Brazil attained nearly half of China's overall investment in manufacturing in the region, through heavy machinery makers SANY and XCMG, and automakers CHERY, JAC Motors and GEELY.

According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a one-percent increase in China's gross domestic product would boost Latin America's economic growth by 0.5 percent.

In July 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed during his Latin America tour to spur mutual development through trade, investment and financial cooperation, pledging to raise investment in the region to at least $250 billion over the next decade.

In recent years, Chinese investment in the region has steadily increased. By the end of 2014, China's direct investment has amounted to $98.9 billion.

Carlos Malamud, a chief researcher at Spanish think tank Elcano Royal Institute, stressed the importance of China's financial cooperation with Latin America, saying "infrastructure offers great opportunities, not just for Chinese investment, but also for its leading construction firms."

By the end of 2014, China had signed deals in Latin America worth more than $110 billion in the areas of natural gas, pipelines, electric power generation, highways, ports, housing, telecommunications and railways. Among them, projects totaling some $67.6 billion have already been completed.

China's cooperation is essential for Latin America "to make the leap from a traditional model of comparative advantages, and substantial reliance on commodities, to a model of dynamic and competitive comparative advantages," Garcia said.