In the morning of September 28 local time, visiting Commerce Minister Chen Deming in Ecuador met with Ecuadorian President Rafael CORREA Delgado on invitation in Quito. The two sides exchanged in-depth views on such issues as investment, technology transfer and talent training.

Firstly, Minister Chen conveyed President Hu Jintao’s regards to President Correa. He said that China and Ecuador has good foundations of cooperation, and the cooperation develops fast in recent years. The main objective of the visit is to advance the implementation of the follow-up work of the four proposals concerning China-Ecuador practical cooperation brought up by Premier Wen Jiabao when visiting Latin America in this June, and to discuss concrete methods to further deepen China-Ecuador mutually beneficial cooperation on trade and economy.

Minister Chen said that, currently Ecuador has become one of the most important investment destinations of China in Latin America. The Chinese government encourages enterprises to carry out cooperation with Ecuador in agriculture and hi-tech industries as well as resources and energy fields, so as to realize sustainable cooperation between the two nations.

Minister Chen expressed that China would like to strengthen cooperation with Ecuador on talent training and technology transfer, implement projects related people’s livelihood, carry out cooperation on agriculture and discuss cooperation on such aspects as establishing industrial zones.

President Correa asked Minister Chen to convey regards to President Hu Jintao. He stressed that current Ecuador-China relations develop smoothly, and trade and economic cooperation are mutually beneficial with huge development space. He hopes the two sides can join efforts to further deepen cooperation. He hopes more Chinese enterprises to invest in such areas as agriculture, petrochemicals, metallurgy, chemical fertilizer and copper processing, and participate in construction of the Refinery of the Pacific and Manta-Manaus transportation hub of Ecuador.

In recent years, China-Ecuador trade and economic relations have been developing fast. The bilateral trade maintains fast growth. According to statistics by China, China-Ecuador bilateral trade volume in 2011 reached US$2.8 billion, up by 40% year on year. At present, China is Ecuador’s fourth largest trading partner.