FURTHERING CHINA-LATIN AMERICA ALL-ROUND COOPERATION
Ernesto Samper, secretary-general of the Union of South American Nations, said Latin American countries eagerly anticipated Xi's visit. He believed that the visit would greatly promote economic and trade cooperation between China and Latin America and strengthen bilateral all-around cooperation.
In fact, China and Latin America have made great progress in furthering their all-round cooperation in recent years.
In July 2014, Xi and leaders of Latin American and Caribbean countries held a summit in Brasilia, during which both sides decided to establish the China-Latin America comprehensive cooperative partnership of equality, mutual benefit and common development.
In January 2015, the first ministerial meeting of the forum of China and the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States was held in Beijing. Xi attended the meeting and made an important speech.
In 2016, China-Latin America relations have moved forward with the setup of new platforms such as the China-Latin America cultural exchange year and the forum of China-Latin America cooperation between local governments.
Official statistics show that the trade volume between China and Latin America rose more than twentyfold during the past decade to reach 236.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.
Currently, China is the second-largest trade partner and third-largest investment source country of Latin-America, while Latin America is China's seventh-largest trade partner.
Although bilateral trade has been affected by a sluggish global economy and the fall in commodity prices, both parties have been optimizing trade structure, diversifying areas for investment and transforming the model of economic and trade relations from one that used to be led only by trade to one driven by trade, investment and finance.
Now, China and Latin America are facing a new task of comprehensively upgrading their cooperation. Meanwhile, the development of bilateral ties has attracted much attention amid some changes in Latin America.
Against such backdrop, Xi's Latin America trip will deliver China's confidence in the stable development of the continent and send a signal of the bright prospects for bilateral cooperation.
"During Xi's visit, China will put forward a blueprint to enhance China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation. Latin America, which is under the pressure of economic transformation, needs China's market, production capacity, capital and experience in construction. China's proposal will be welcome," said Chen Fengying, an economist with China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
ACCELERATING ASIA-PACIFIC INTEGRATION
Under the theme of "Quality Growth and Human Development," the 21 APEC members will seek to make decisions to facilitate trade and investment as well as consolidate liberalization policies at the Peru summit.
Xi is expected to deliver a speech to the APEC CEO summit, meet representatives of the APEC business advisory council, attend two phases of the economic leaders' meeting and have meetings with some leaders.
China has grown into an important leader in Asia-Pacific cooperation.
During the 2014 APEC summit in Beijing, APEC member economies pushed forward the process of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) by sketching out a historic roadmap for FTAAP.
The meeting also adopted important documents for an integrated, innovative and interconnected Asia-Pacific.
Now, the Beijing consensus is becoming reality, with the FTAAP process being carried forward orderly. A collective strategic study on issues related to the realization of FTAAP has been completed and the final version of the study along with recommendations will be presented to leaders at the Peru summit.
"I believe that Xi's attendance at the meeting will greatly promote the implementation of the fruits yielded at the Beijing summit and push forward FTAAP and connectivity from the highest level to make vision come true," said Chen, the Chinese economist.
