Business
09:58, 03-Dec-2018
China-Panama cooperative ties in numbers
Updated
09:07, 06-Dec-2018
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Panama is the third stop of Chinese President Xi Jinping's four-nation tour, from November 27-December 5, after the conclusion of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
China and Panama formally established diplomatic relations on June 13, 2017, and this visit is believed to inject fresh energy to the already close ties between the two countries.
Today, China is Panama's third largest export destination, the second biggest user of the Panama Canal after the U.S., and the largest supplier of goods in the Panamanian Free Zone. Panama is China's eighth largest trading partner and fifth largest export destination in Latin America.
In 2016, some 400 Chinese vessels passed through the Panama Canal, contributing about 150 million U.S. dollars. Since then, the number has surged to over 1,000 vessels per year.
Over 90 percent of all Chinese goods are re-exported via Panama's Colon Free Trade Zone to other Latin American countries.
As of May 2017, about 30 Chinese enterprises, such as Huawei, Bank of China, and Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd, had started operations in Panama, and some 70 private enterprises were engaged in trade in the Colon Free Trade Zone, extending into sectors like shipping, trade, communications, and finance.
Official data shows Panamanian beef exports shot up 58 percent in the first half of 2018 compared with the same period in 2010, standing at 2,556 tons. The main export destinations include China's Taiwan region (47 percent), the Bahamas (6.46 percent), El Salvador (7.46 percent) and Hong Kong, China's Special Administrative Region (5.9 percent).
Panama is also the first Latin American country that signed an agreement to partner with China in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which then launched negotiations for a mutually beneficial bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China in July 2018.
In a bid to expand its exports to China, Panamanian businessmen also participated in the world's first-ever import themed expo, the China International Import Expo (CIIE), as one of the 12 guest of honor counties.
On November 7, Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela attended the opening ceremony of the Panama National Pavilion at the CIIE in Shanghai to spur bilateral collaboration via Panama Canal and showcase Panamanian products with the export potential to Chinese consumers, such as pineapples, cocoa, seafood, chicken and pork.
Varela also held meetings with several tour operators in Shanghai during the CIIE with a hope to attract more Chinese tourists to Panama. In the first six months of 2018, over 13,000 Chinese tourists visited Panama.
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