• The seminar lasted 20 days and was organized by the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Officials’ Training Center of China’s Fujian Province.

InvestChile participated in the Seminar on Investment Promotion and Cooperation for Latin American Countries, which took place over 20 days and was organized by the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Officials’ Training Center of the Fujian Province of the People’s Republic of China.

Fifty-one people from the investment promotion agencies, foreign and labor ministries and regional governments of six countries – Chile, Colombia, Equatorial Guinea (the only Spanish-speaking African country), Panama, Peru and Uruguay – attended the seminar.

The activities consisted in ten days of classes in the city of Fuzhou, focusing on topics that included foreign trade and the promotion of investment in China, the country’s 1979 economic reform, the development of free trade zones, the importance of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative and cooperation between the Fujian Province and Taiwan. The event also included visits to companies, industrial parks and development centers in the cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Haikao.

China is Chile’s principal trading partner and Chile is China’s second most export market in Latin America. However, Chinese foreign direct investment in Chile is a pending challenge. According to the Chilean Central Bank, the stock of Chinese investment in Chile reaches only US$259 million, a figure that is in contrast with the volume of bilateral trade.