In the outgoing year, China-Latin America relations have undergone sound development, with strengthened political dialogue and increased economic cooperation.

A number of high-level exchanges highlight closer ties, including Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping‘s visit to Cuba, Chile and Uruguay in June and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff‘s visit to China in April.

In addition, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between China and Costa Rica became effective in August while last month the 5th China-Latin America Business Summit opened in Peru.

All these point to a closer bond between China and Latin America, both politically and economically.

During his speech at the headquarters of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in June, Xi said at the beginning of the second decade of the new century, China and Latin American countries are faced with new development opportunities and should conduct more cooperation based on mutual benefit.

FAVORABLE CONDITIONS

China is the largest trade partner of Brazil and Chile and the second largest partner of Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica and Cuba.

Latin America is the second most important investment destination for Chinese businesses, attracting more than 30 billion U.S. dollars, or 12.5 percent of China‘s total overseas investment.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, trade between China and Latin America stood at 183.07 billion dollars in 2010 with an annual average increase of 28.4 percent.

In an interview with Xinhua, ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena said China‘s rapid growth have boosted its economic relations with Latin America.

Augusto de la Torre, chief economist for Latin American and Caribbean at the World Bank, also believes that China, whose economy is highly complementary with that of South America, has "directly or indirectly" helped the region to keep a robust growth.

STRONG TRACK RECORDS

The year of 2011 has seen strong track records in trade ties between China and South America.

Marco Aurelio Garcia, Brazil‘s presidential foreign affairs advisor, said "this year was a very positive one," with the region‘s overall trade with China hitting a new record.

Argentina‘s trade with China in the first ten months of 2011 reached a historic high of 14.57 billion dollars.

China is Argentina‘s second-largest trade partner after Brazil and Chinese investments in Argentina‘s energy, petro-chemistry, transportation, agribusiness, and mining sectors are particularly strong over the past two years.

In the third quarter of 2011, China became a major destination for Chilean exports, accounting for 21 percent of the total.

A free trade agreement signed in 2009 has given a strong boost to the trade between China and Peru.

During the first nine months of 2011, Peruvian exports to China registered a 16-percent year-on-year growth.

Peru‘s trade ministry estimated that in 2012, the country‘s trade with China will exceed 15 billion dollars, 15.38 percent higher than 13 billion dollars estimated for this year.

BROAD PERSPECTS

Thanks to its financial links with Asian countries in general and China in particular, Latin America has weathered through the world economic crisis, said Jose Angel Gurria, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

At the moment, Latin American countries have shown interest in renewing cooperatio