In the evening of May 27, Guo Wenqing, Chinese Chairman of the China-Chile Business Council (CCBC), General Manager of China Minmetals Group Company and Chairman of the Board of Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), attended the Online Roundtable Conference of China-Chile Business Council in Beijing and delivered a speech. Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and Deputy Representative of China International Trade, Rodrigo Yáñez, Chile’s Deputy Minister of Trade and General Director of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Francisco Silva, Chilean Chairman of CCBC and Chairman of the Board, Banco de Valores de Chile, took part in this conference. The conference was chaired by Yao Wenping, Executive Vice President of China Council for International Investment Promotion (CCIIP).
On behalf of China Minmetals, Chinese Committee of CCBC, Guo Wenqing expressed his gratitude to the Chilean Committee for their mutual cooperation and support over the years, expressed his sincere thanks to the Chilean Committee and Chilean entrepreneurs for their care and help to Chinese enterprises and China Minmetals, and expressed his concern for enterprises that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in his opening speech.
Guo Wenqing said that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the global economy and the global economic and trade cooperation. Facing the challenges of the adverse situation, the CCBC, as the most standard and largest economic and trade organization in the field of economic and trade investment between the two countries, actively organizes multiple online round tables, invites the leaders of relevant departments of the two governments and the leaders of the enterprise community to discuss the policies of China-Chile economic and trade development under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, and to promote the rapid recovery of economic and trade activities between the two countries; It actively provides members with services such as information push, publicity and promotion, project promotion, fully supports and participates in online and offline economic and trade activities, and helps enterprises minimize the impact of the epidemic; It also actively organizes Chinese members to donate epidemic prevention materials to Chile, care about and help each other, and provide Chile with the best assistance to fight the epidemic. With the efforts of governments and enterprises of two countries, the China-Chile economic trade exchange has overcome the challenges, with the bilateral trade volume increasing 7.7% against the trend in 2020 and the growth in the first four months approaching 50% in 2021. China remains to be Chile's biggest business partner, the largest source of import and the largest destination of export. Chile's mineral and agricultural products have increased their shares in the Chinese market.
Guo Wenqing stressed that the world is undergoing unprecedented changes and global business and trade have shown new features. On December 15, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Chilean President Piñera on the phone. President Xi showed China's willingness to expand the investment in Chile's agriculture, mining, infrastructure construction and other areas, to build new points for growth and cooperation. Two countries have achieved a series of consensuses to jointly deepen the China-Chile comprehensive strategic partnership. Next, the Chinese Committee will continue to further strengthen close cooperation with the Chilean Committee guided by the leaders of the two countries, closely focus on the industries with complementary advantages and supplementary supply and demand of the two countries, consolidate and deepen cooperation in traditional fields such as agriculture, mining and engineering, and better promote the sharing of resources and results between the two countries; They will focus on the new economic development with the direction of peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality, actively expand cooperation in emerging fields such as new energy, new technology, greening and intelligence, and accelerate the development of new economy and increase new momentum between the two countries.
Guo Wenqing said that China Minmetals is the initiative sponsor and chairman of the CCBC, with managed assets of more than RMB 2 trillion and revenue exceeding RMB 700 billion last year. It has completed the goal of "quadrupling profits in three steps". In the first quarter of 2021, its revenue and profits have largely increased compared with the same period last year, hitting the new peaks. It has achieved satisfying results in accordance with the goal of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and "Revenue of more than RMB one trillion and that doubled in the next five years." China Minmetals is one of the earliest enterprises involved in China-Chile economic and trade cooperation. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1970, China-Chile first electrolytic copper trade was carried out. In 2005, China Minmetals signed a 15-year electrolytic copper sales agreement with Chile's national copper industry, accumulating 840,000 tons, which became the main force of the two countries in the field of copper resource cooperation. In the future, China Minmetals will further play a leading role in deepening cooperation with Chilean Mining Company with greater sincerity, maximize resource value with a bigger market, and make contributions to the economic and social development of Chile with greater investment. He also mentioned in particular that China Minmetals will jointly seek cooperation with Chilean enterprises in resource development such as copper and lithium, mine tailings pond governance and engineering project construction.
Francisco Silva said in his opening speech that 2021 is the 15th year that the China-Chile Free Trade Agreement has come into effect. Although the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on world trade, the bilateral trade volume between China and Chile last year reached USD 43.802 billion, up 12% year on year, which was inseparable from the good operation of the FTA and also benefited from the effective prevention and control of the epidemic in China. Up to now, China has invested about USD 15 billion in Chile, accounting for about 10% of Chile's foreign direct investment, making positive contributions to Chile's economic and social development and the provision of jobs. CCBC will combine the speeches of the governments of the two countries and representatives of the industry and commerce community, continuously broaden the trade prospects and formulate favorable policies to help maintain the smooth exchanges of goods, services and investment between the two countries and promote the better development of bilateral economic and trade relations.
Richard Von Appen, Chairman of the Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA) addressed that the founding of CCBC has provided platforms for communication for enterprises of two countries, created a cooperation environment that features mutual trust and shared benefits, and promoted the development of a batch of high-quality projects. We will strive to maintain a good investment environment, provide investment system guarantees for Chinese enterprises, and contribute to further deepening the friendly business cooperation between the two countries.
Wang Shouwen and Rodrigo Yáñez delivered keynote speeches on the theme of "Key Impact of Investment in New Situations on Promoting China-Chile Economic and Trade Cooperation". Wang noted that in the face of the global pandemic, the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile have earnestly implemented the important consensus reached between the heads of China and Chile on strengthening anti-epidemic cooperation, and jointly issued the Joint Statement on Strengthening Free Trade Cooperation and Fighting COVID-19. Also, CCBC successfully holding two online round table meetings has promoted the steady development of China-Chile trade investment. With the joint efforts of both sides, China-Chile comprehensive strategic partnership will become closer, further showing the good momentum in business and trade cooperation. We will continue to focus on key industries and promote the diversified and high-quality development of China-Chile bidirectional investment. We will keep encouraging enterprises of two countries to fulfill their social responsibility. We will also continue to strengthen the cooperation with WTO and jointly improve the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trade system. We hope that CCBC will continue to provide services and unite enterprises of two countries, promote exchanges and communications between China-Chile industry and commerce communities, and sustain and develop a healthy bilateral investment and trade relation.
Rodrigo Yáñez said that the profound friendship between Chile and China has been further consolidated and deepened in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extensive cooperation between Chile and China on COVID-19 vaccines has played an important role in the implementation of the national immunization program in Chile, and the Chilean government sincerely thanks the Chinese government for its selfless assistance to Chile during the fight against COVID-19. The Chilean government will, as always, support economic and trade cooperation between Chile and China, further promote the wide application of open markets and free markets, and hope that the two parties will further strengthen exchanges in the fields of infrastructure construction, energy development, agriculture and digital applications, and establish more pragmatic and constructive bilateral relations.
Guo Wenqing delivered a closing speech on behalf of the Chinese Committee of CCBC. He said that surrounding expanding the two-way investment direction between China and Chile, the Chinese Committee of CCBC will focus on three aspects:
First, the dialogue and communication mechanism shall be continuously improved to play a better role in bringing together each side. More online and offline communication activities shall be planned and organized, so that the problems faced by Chinese and Chilean enterprises in operation activities can be widely known and the cooperation needs can be timely reported to the government departments of both parties.
Second, we should continuously improve the quality of policies and information services, continuously increase the attention to various policy and regulation revisions, changes in market demand, epidemic prevention and control situation of the two countries, sort out the relevant information in detail, and share with the member units promptly. We also need to focus on the interpretation and guidance of documents such as the China-Chile Bilateral Free Trade Agreement and the China-Chile Bilateral Investment Agreement, help member units adapt to the new situation quickly and take the lead in the new round of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
Third, we should actively expand project cooperation opportunities, guide and promote Chinese enterprises to expand their investment in Chile, actively provide services for Chilean enterprises to invest in China, exploit the potential of China-Chile bidirectional investment and joint investment, and further strengthen the docking cooperation between the two parties on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Jiao Jian, Deputy General Manager of the China Minmetals Group Company, attended the conference. Attendees also included relevant personnel of relevant headquarters departments and directly managed enterprises, namely Xue Fei, Zeng Gang, Liu Lijun, Xing Yan, Zhu Haitao, Yang Ruobing, Zhang Jinhong, Zhao Jing, He Ruijuan, Zhu Lina. More than 200 members of the CCBC member units attended the conference by online video.
Guo Wenqing is delivering a speech
Scene of the Conference
A group photo after the conference
