Ambassador envisions long, fruitful relationship

President Xi Jinping's visit to Costa Rica is expected to bring the countries' relationship to a higher level, with more cooperation in areas including trade, infrastructure, energy and tourism, said the Central American country's ambassador to China.

Ambassador Marco Vinicio Ruiz said his country is honored to host Xi on his first trip to the region, and the visit is evidence that relations between Costa Rica and China "are going through a very important period".

There have been notable achievements in the six years since the two countries established diplomatic relations on June 1, 2007. China has become Costa Rica's secondbiggest trade partner, and Costa Rica is China's ninth-largest trade partner in Latin America.

High-level exchanges have been frequent. Shortly after the establishment of diplomatic ties, former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias visited China and current President Laura Chinchilla visited Beijing in August. In 2008, former Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Costa Rica.

Ruiz noted that the most important bilateral achievements include the Chinese-financed construction of the National Stadium in Costa Rica, the free trade agreement between the two countries that he called a "milestone", the creation of a Chinatown in Costa Rica's capital San Jose and the opening of the Confucius Institute at the University of Costa Rica.

"In general the relationship will be focused on trade, infrastructure, energy, sustainable development, education, sports, tourism and culture," said the ambassador.

Ruiz said trade relations between the two countries are "very strong".

"For 15 years we have been part of the world supply chain of electronic products. We've attracted a lot of companies from the US and Europe to use Costa Rica as their base of operations, including Intel, and that export capacity has been good for China," he said.