On May 5th 2008, CCPIT, in cooperation with the People's Government of Heilongjiang Province, co-hosted the Promotion Conference of the 2nd China-Latin America Business Summit in Beijing. Mr. Wan Jifei, Chairman of CCPIT, Mr. Yu Ping, Vice-Chairman of CCPIT, Mr. Sun Yao, Vice Governor of Heilongjiang, representatives of Heilongjiang Province, and ambassadors of Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Chief Representative of Panama-China Trade Development Office, Commercial Counselors of Latin American countries, and other 50 representatives participated in the Conference.

　　At the Conference, Chairman Wan Jifei reviewed the outcomes of the First China-Latin America Business Summit held in Santiago de Chile, last November, and informed all participants about the Second China-Latin America Business Summit that is to be convened in Harbin, Heilongjiang between October 20th and 21st 2008. Vice Governor Sun Yao made an informative presentation on the business climate of Heilongjiang. He gave a warm invitation to the Latin American business delegates and ambassadors to visit Harbin during the Summit.

　　Vice Chairman Yu Ping explained the theme of the Second Summit which is "Renovating the Trade Services and Strengthening the Regional Cooperation". Based on the existing cooperation, the Summit is going to further talk about the methods and tools of promoting the business and facilitate the investment, joint efforts among governments, business associations and private sectors in order to promote the fast and healthy trade development of China-Latin America business relations. China is a country featured by diversified regional economies.  This Summit is to be hold in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, which forms the Northeast Economic Region of China with other two neighboring provinces Jilin and Liaonin.  Agriculture and manufacture are two main industries of this region. According to CCPIT, the economy of this region is very complementary to Latin American countries and particular regions of Latin American countries.  In this context, China and Latin American countries should use this Summit as an opportunity to enhance the cooperation of the certain regions of two sides. Mr. Yu Ping highlighted that besides a Country Presentation Session in the Summit, there will be a free stand for each participating country to present their image in order to improve Chinese delegates' knowledge about Latin American countries and their economies.

　　Mr. Guillermo Ricardo Velez, Ambassador of Colombia and Head of the Delegation of Latin America introduced the latest trade relations between Latin America and China. He pointed out that, in 2007, the trade volume between China and Latin America reached 102.6 billion USD, with a growth rate of 44%, and 5 of the 7 biggest Latin American economies maintained favorable trade balance. The China-Latin America trade witnessed a balance on the whole between import and export while the trade structure and quality improved steadily. In terms of growth rate, the volume of China-Colombia bilateral trade increased 90.7%, and Brazil was China's biggest trade partner in terms of trade volumes.  Mr. Velet observed that the bilateral trade between Costa Rica and China developed rapidly since the establishment of diplomatic relationships, and Costa Rica was going to maintain the surplus in the future.

　　The Latin American diplomats highly appreciated CCPIT's enormous efforts to promote the development of the bilateral trade relations, and promised to support the organization of the Summit.  The Ambassador of Chile and the Commercial Counselor of Venezuela suggested respectively that on the basis of the success of the first Summit, the organizers should concentrate more on the business project matchmaking as well as supporting SMEs' international operations. The Chief Representative of Panama-China Trade Development Office expressed his satisfaction of the theme of the Summit.

　　CCPIT hosted a working lunch after the Promotion Conference.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(By CCPIT Int'l Relations Dept. & Media and Press Center)