China-Latin America Military Logistics Forum kicks off in Beijing

[TaiShang]

China-Latin America Military Logistics Forum kicks off in Beijing

2015-10-23

General Zhao Keshi, member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and director of the PLA General Logistics Department, delivers a keynote speech at the China-Latin America Military Logistics Forum in Beijing on the morning of October 22, 2015.

　　BEIJING, October 23 (ChinaMil) -- The China-Latin America Military Logistics Forum kicked off in Beijing on the morning of October 22, 2015.

　　General Zhao Keshi, member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and director of the PLA General Logistics Department (GLD), gave a keynote speech titled Writing a New Chapter of China-Latin America Military Logistics Relations at the forum.

　　During the 10-day forum, logistics leaders from the military or defense departments of 11 Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Columbia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, will hold discussions and exchanges in Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai successively.

　　With the theme of "Strengthening Mutual Understanding for Win-win Cooperation", the forum aims to tighten the friendship between Chinese and Latin American militaries and promote pragmatic exchanges and cooperation in military logistics through lectures, discussions, exchanges and visits.

　　In his keynote speech, General Zhao Keshi mentioned that during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Latin America last year, he proposed to build up a Five-in-One new pattern of China-Latin America relations: "sincerely trust each other in politics, cooperate with each other for a win-win outcome in economy and trade, learn from each other in people-to-people and cultural exchanges, closely cooperate with each other in international affairs, and promote each other in overall cooperation and bilateral relations."

　　President Xi Jinping's proposal received positive responses from all Latin American countries and injected a new impetus to consolidating and advancing China-Latin America relations, including strengthening the military and logistics cooperation.

　　The Chinese military logistics department has intensified the exchanges with its foreign counterparts including Latin America. It has carried out UN peacekeeping missions, earthquake relief, flood-fighting and emergency rescue and other humanitarian aids in multiple regions and countries, especially dispatching medical teams to Africa to fight against Ebola virus, receiving applauses from the international community.

　　Upholding the attitude of openness, sincerity and win-win cooperation, the Chinese military stands ready to work with foreign militaries to perform international obligations and carry out exchanges and cooperation with foreign military logistics departments, including Latin America.

　　Zhao Keshi made a five-pronged proposal on developing pragmatic military logistics cooperation between China and Latin America. 1. China and Latin America should enhance high-level exchanges to deepen mutual understanding, promote cooperation, and inject new vitality into the development of China-Latin America military relations.

　　2. China and Latin America should strengthen professional discussion and exchange, jointly discuss the concept, experience, trend and measures of future logistics, and boost both sides' development and capability of logistics.

　　3. China and Latin America should intensify cooperation in logistics technology and enhance information exchange and result sharing.

　　4. China and Latin America should carry out joint logistics exercise and training, hold logistics support exercise such as humanitarian relief to improve the joint support capability.

　　5. China and Latin America should expand the exchange between middle-aged and young officers of both sides, so as to lay a solid foundation for the long-term development of China-Latin America military relations and logistics exchange.

 

[Nevsky]

The clock is ticking, USA, can you hear it ?

 

[TaiShang]

Latin America and Caribbean can learn from China to reduce imports dependency: ECLAC

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 20 -- Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said Tuesday that the region should follow China's lead in how to replace imports with domestic production.

"What China is doing should be applied to Latin America and the Caribbean. Namely, we should diminish the imported components and raise our production of domestic components. This would allow us to become highly competitive," said Barcena.

She said that this mechanism does not "close markets off" but is a strategy to improve domestic value chains across Latin America.

Furthermore, the implementation of significant industrial policies would help to halt low growth, develop new sectors and raise export capacity.

For Barcena, Latin American countries can also become strategic partners for China on the agricultural front, since ECLAC expects the Asian giant to double its food imports by 2020.

Finally, she urged regional countries to bolster their tourism offering, saying that China will see around 100 million outbound tourists in 2015, but that the region only receives 0.3 percent of them.

Last year, China became the second-largest trading partner for the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole.

Barcena was in Mexico City on Tuesday to release ECLAC's new report, named "Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2015. The regional trade crisis: assessment and outlook." It predicts that Latin America and the Caribbean will see a 14 percent drop in exports this year.