On Wednesday, November 15, the seminar “The Belt and Road Initiative and China-Chile Relations” was held, organized jointly by the Millennium Nucleus ICLAC and the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Chile. The event addressed the Chinese initiative, scope, potential, and perspectives of its relationship with Chile and included the participation of government authorities, Chilean academics, the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (ILAS – CASS), private sector representatives, and students.
The Belt and Road initiative, also known as One Belt, One Road, was launched in October 2013 by President Xi Jinping. The Asian giant's long-term proposal proposes the construction of an economic belt and maritime route to create a trade and infrastructure network that connects Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. In this context, Chile signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China in 2018 to jointly promote the initiative of its main trading partner.
During the event, the Chinese ambassador to Chile, Niu Qingbao, highlighted collaboration between both countries, mentioning the success of the FTA signed in 2005, which is the bilateral trade agreement with the highest level of openness in the foreign trade of Chinese products.
El director del Núcleo Milenio ICLAC, Francisco Urdinez, destacó algunos proyectos recientes entre ambas regiones (China – América Latina), como la colaboración entre el Centro de Cooperación Multilateral para la Financiación del Desarrollo (MCDF) y CAF – Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe.
For his part, the director of Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrés Villar, highlighted the role that Chile plays in this initiative and the opportunities that it means for the country to be able to strengthen collaborative ties with China, not only at a commercial level, but also politically, culturally, and socially too.
The seminar was organized in two different roundtables. Firstly, the “Role and Effect of the Belt and Road Initiative in China-Chile Relations”, focused on the role and impact of this initiative in the relations between both countries, key successes, regional comparison, and alignment with economic and political objectives. A second roundtable entitled “China and Chile as partners of the Belt and Road Initiative: Capabilities and Perspectives”, addressed the capabilities of China and Chile as partners in the BRI, future challenges, areas of collaboration, maximization of economic benefits with sustainability and the role of technological innovations.
Further participants included Yue Yunxia, head of the ILAS-CASS Economics Department; Carlos Olguín, Ambassador and former director of the Asia Pacific team of the Foreign Ministry; Andrés Bórquez, academic at the Institute of International Studies and ICLAC researcher; Diego Araya from the SUBREI of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dorotea López, Director of the Institute of International Studies and ICLAC researcher; Chai Yu, Director of ILAS – CASS; Zhou Zhiwei, Head of the CASS International Relations Department; Mauricio Benítez, from SW Chile; Johannes Rehner, Director of the UC Institute of Geography and ICLAC researcher; and Claudia Labarca, Academic at the UC Faculty of Communications and ICLAC researcher.
The seminar concluded with synthesis by Sebastián Herreros, Economic Affairs Officer of ECLAC, who announced during the event the findings of a study carried out by this organization on the commercial relationship between Latin America and the Caribbean and China over the last twenty years.