- Largest China-Latin America Business Summit to date

- China proposed Free Trade Agreement with CELAC

- Uruguay working to increase quality over quantity for Chinese market

The trendy summer resort Punta del Este in Uruguay is where the only Trump Tower in Latin America is currently being built. But rather than build ties with the north, this weekend it was ties with China that were this city's focus.

The 11th annual China-Latin America business summit attracted the largest delegation to date, with over 600 business leaders from China and participants from more than 40 countries taking part in a series of talks and meetings designed to explore ideas to increase commerce.

"The biggest challenge is that our trade is concentrated in five commodities from Latin America that are exported to China," Luis Alberto Moreno, the Inter-American Development Bank president, told journalists in a meeting with Chinese media. "We need to broaden that offering."

With a mooted Free Trade Agreement between Uruguay and China on hold, Uruguay President Tabaré Vázquez said China has proposed a similar agreement with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). 

Economy Minister Danilo Astori told an audience that infrastructure projects in Uruguay alone require 12 billion US dollars worth of financing. 

Moreno said, "It is fundamental for the Belt and Road Initiative to integrate into Latin America to do so with financing from China."

"We have to be here at this summit to show people what we are doing," Mu Gang, chairman of car manufacturer Lifan, told CGTN.

Lifan currently exports cars from its factory in Uruguay to neighboring Latin American countries, but is considering manufacturing electric vehicles in Uruguay.

Mu also said that China is the world leader in terms of new energy vehicles, and Lifan has a lot of good experience that others can learn from. He believes a transition to electric vehicles in this region would take at least five years.

At this business summit, the focus was on key areas ranging from renewable energy and transport to services and also a key sector for Uruguay – agribusiness. 

At the summit were members of the Agricultural Research Institute INIA, which is working on a project to develop high-protein soy for the Chinese market – specifically for human consumption.

"One of the important aspects for human consumption is that it is not transgenic soy," Victoria Bonnecarrere, chief investigator at INIA, told CGTN, explaining why Uruguay was chosen to receive genetic material to work with China, rather than larger regional exporters such as Argentina and Brazil. 

INIA president, Jose Luis Repetto, told CGTN part of the philosophy of what Uruguay is working to achieve is increase quality and not quantity to differentiate its products. 

"80 percent of Uruguay’s exports are agricultural products that we sell to the world. We have focused on quality and giving security to the consumer," said Repetto. 

China and Uruguay signed the agreement to develop soy for human consumption six months ago and it could take around a decade before production begins. But it is an example of how Uruguay is working to carve out a niche in the Chinese market with guarantees of quality for consumers. On Friday, Uruguay and China also signed a new agreement for tracking beef exports, also by way of guaranteeing product quality.

The next regional meeting between Latin American countries and China takes place in Chile in January 2018 at the CELAC summit.