Science and technology cooperation between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is essential for the region's development, according to experts.
"We have to be clear on this: knowledge is power," said Rene Ramirez, Ecuadoran Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation.
"China has bet on science, technology and innovation to achieve domestically driven development," Ramirez noted, adding the 33-member bloc wants to learn from China's experience.
To that end, the first CELAC-China Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation took place Sept. 16 to 18 in Quito, Ecuador, which holds the rotating presidency of the bloc this year.
CELAC "has much to learn from China, a country that has taken a great leap forward in the field," said Ramirez.
Latin America relies heavily on technologies developed elsewhere, and it needs China's cooperation to address that, he added.
Marco Navas, a professor at the Simon Bolivar Andean University in Quito, told Xinhua that Latin America has seen little technology transfer from the U.S. and the EU, its long-time trade partners.
"CELAC needs to find other sources of technology apart from the traditional sources with which it has historically maintained ties, such as Europe and the United States, with the hope that there will be a real transfer of technology," he said.
In a study released this year, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said such bilateral cooperation "is essential to reducing inequality" in a world marked by "accelerated technological change."
China-Latin America cooperation began in earnest in 2008, and was given a development framework with the adoption of the 2015-2019 Cooperation Plan proposed at the first ministerial meeting of the CELAC and China in Beijing in January.
The plan identified 13 areas of cooperation, including science and technology.
Patent registration in Latin America has fallen in the past decade, and spending on education and research lags far behind the more industrialized countries.
During the forum, Ernesto Samper, the head of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), called on countries to invest more in those areas than the current average of 0.5 percent of GDP.
"It's totally insufficient," said Samper, adding that "we don't want these paradoxical situations to continue, in which poor countries have to pay for the technology produced in rich countries."
Ecuadoran Vice President Jorge Glas described the forum, and CELAC's resulting proximity to one of the world's most innovative economies, as historically and strategically important for Latin America.
The forum, he said, showed CELAC and China seek new horizons and new agendas for integration.
