Li seeks robust relations with Bolivia

Cooperation with Latin America to see 'explosive' growth, observers say

The Chinese economy will be able to sustain stable and healthy growth, which will assure cooperation between China and other countries, Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday during a meeting with the president of Bolivia.

China will continue unleashing the forces of the market through deepening reform and opening-up, Li said while meeting President Evo Morales in Beijing.

As 2013 nears an end, the Chinese economy can absolutely realize its main targets for the year, he said.

The remarks came a week after Beijing's tone-setting Central Economic Conference, which reviewed the country's economic work for 2013 and mapped out plans for 2014. It also came about a month after the Communist Party of China Central Committee unveiled a landmark plan to comprehensively deepen reforms.

Observers said Latin American countries hope they can benefit from China's reform and opening-up, and with the growing importance Beijing has attached to the region, bilateral cooperation would see "explosive" development.

Calling both China and Bolivia developing countries, Li said China wants a more balanced and burgeoning trade relationship with the South American nation.

He called for closer ties between the two nations in energy, agriculture, infrastructure and technology.

For his part, Morales told Li that Bolivia admires the achievements of Chinese development and would like to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with the world's second-largest economy.

On Thursday, Morales and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, saw both sides sign economic agreements in which China will provide financial support to Bolivia.

Morales's three-day visit also sent him from Beijing to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province on Friday. He was scheduled to watch the launch of Bolivia's first communication satellite there.

The program involved an investment of $300 million, much of which was loaned by China Development Bank.

Chen Yuanting, a researcher on Latin American studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said trade potential between China and Latin American countries, including Bolivia, is huge.

"Trade with China is especially important for those Latin American countries that heavily rely on raw material exports, and closer economic ties with China are one of the reasons why they survived the recent global financial crisis," said Chen.

Landlocked Bolivia has the second-biggest natural gas reserves in Latin America and a large number of iron ore mines. Chinese companies recently won a bid for a Bolivian railway construction project, which observers said would help its rich resources reach the international market.

More investment from China will flow to sectors in Latin America, Chen said.

Trade between China and Bolivia reached $516 million in the first eight months of 2013, an increase of 18 percent compared with the same period last year, statistics showed. Total trade between China and Latin America grew 8 percent last year to $255.5 billion, which means the region's trade with China is growing faster than that with the United States.

According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, China will replace the European Union as South America's most important trading partner by 2015.

Zhou Wa contributed tothis story.

zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn