Han Ximin

    LATIN American countries are inviting Shenzhen companies to invest or cooperate in their expanding industries of tourism, biology, mining exploration, medicine and energy.

    At the Shenzhen-Latin America Forum on Cooperation and Exchange, held Thursday at Shenzhen Wuzhou Guest House, Flex Cruz, consul-general of Cuba in Guangzhou, hoped to gain cooperation with China and particularly Shenzhen in biological pharmacy, medical tourism and mining.

    “Cuba has dozens of biological research institutes and is the third largest tourism destination in Latin America, so the medical tourism and biological pharmacy industries have great potential for collaboration and growth,” Cruz said at a forum briefing.

    China has become the No. 1 trade partner of Brazil and Chile and the second-largest trade partner of Argentina.

    The forum attracted diplomats from six Latin American countries and representatives from 147 local enterprises.

    Shenzhen and Latin America have solid foundations for further cooperation. Statistics show that Shenzhen’s trade with Latin American countries reached US$14 billion in 2011, an increase of 26.2 percent from the previous year.

    Shenzhen also is the home of more than 1,000 companies funded by Latin American countries including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Jamaica and Chile. A total of 83 Shenzhen companies, including Huawei and ZTE, have invested in fast-growing Latin markets, Shenzhen vice mayor Chen Gaihu said at the forum.    

    Mindray, a Shenzhen medical device developer, began expanding into Latin markets six years ago. Zheng Yinghong, the company’s marketing superintendent, said it’s a great time for local enterprises to expand into Latin America because, so far, there are limited Chinese investors and the market is booming.

    Yue Yunxia, deputy researcher at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, regards Latin America as a familiar stranger to Chinese, for geographic reasons. China has had good political ties with Latin American countries for decades, but the economic ties started to warm up only in recent years.