At the China International Import Expo in November, Colombia will showcase a variety of goods including coffee, fruit and emeralds in an 80-square-meter area. It is one of many Latin American countries including Argentina, Peru and Chile, hoping to work with China within the Belt and Road framework.
China is Colombia's second largest trade partner boasting more than 10 billion US dollars’ worth of bilateral trade in 2017, which is a 9.8 percent growth rate year-on-year. However, Colombia’s aging infrastructure is barring more trade from happening. The country’s consul general in Shanghai said that Colombia needs China's help to further develop its transportation system because transportation brings prosperity.
“If you can connect the country, you can sell products, you can bring more tourists. I think the most important is interconnection within transportation, or the high-speed train,” said Luz Helena Echeverry.
The consul general added that China has become one of the most powerful economies that can provide money and experience for his country while Colombia has tax exemption and a lot of attracting projects for investors.
Actually, more than 70 Chinese companies have invested in Colombia, mainly in infrastructure. One of them is China United Engineering Corporation. In late April, its twin power plants in western Colombia started generating power for 1.5 million homes.
“We, as a Chinese company, did the design and exported all the equipment from China for this project. The two projects cost in total about 800 million US dollars. Each year, we directly hire about 2,000 to 3,000 local engineers and workers,” said Li Yanfei, general manager at China United Engineering Corporation.”
Earlier this year, Beijing announced it will push forth a feasibility study on free trade agreement between China and Colombia. The consul general said Colombia wishes to work with China's e-commerce platforms to further expand trade.
“I think the emerald industry is a big market for Colombia, and I think it's a big challenge in the Chinese market. For us, E-commerce is really important, as you see, like Alibaba in Hangzhou,” he said, explaining convenience and safety are the two reasons behind the necessity of an e-commerce platform.
（From:CGTN）
