Rare question and answer Xinhua Exclusive on China- Latam relations

Thank you Xinhua News. Please click here to access the article from Xinhua News.

Yang Wanming, director-general of the the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, exchanged views with chinanews.com readers online on Tuesday afternoon.

 

Yang Wanming, director-generalof the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, answers questions from chinanews.com readers online on Jan 17, 2012. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

 

Topic: China-Latin America cooperation in culture

Q: How do China and Latin America cooperate in the field of culture?

A: China has opened 32 Confucius institutes in Latin America, covering almost all Latin American countries. Both sides also send art troupes to visit one another and conduct people-to-people exchanges. Many Chinese people like their football, music and dances and engage in studying Spanish and Portuguese. Many Chinese books have also been translated into Spanish and sold in Latin America.

Topic: Cooperation in energy

Q: What’s the current situation with Sino-Latin American energy cooperation? Some people think China is plundering energy resources there and uses it as a way to curb the US.

A: China is trying to carry out comprehensive cooperation with Latin American countries and its efforts have been well welcomed by them. The cooperation not only benefits the two parties, but also contributes to global peace, stability and prosperity. It started late and is on a relatively small scale, but has been developing fast. China imported 20.73 million tons of crude oil from Latin American countries in 2010, which accounts for 8.7 percent of China’s total import in that year. Venezuela has become China’s 4th largest oil provider. The two parties will explore cooperation on new energy. It’s totally based on equality and mutual benefit and will do no harm to the third party.

Topic: US view on China-Latin America relationship

Q: The relationship between China and Latin American countries has developed so fast. What do you think of the feeling in the US to this?

A: In recent years, the independence of Latin American countries is growing and its economic growth momentum becomes more diverse than before.

The rapid development of China-Latin America relations is on the basis of mutual benefit and win-win for both sides and is within the needs of Latin American countries’ diversified diplomacy and development strategy.

It will not only benefit development of both, but also contribute to the world’s stability and development.

China and the US have already established a consultation mechanism on Latin-America, and through four different consultations, the two parties have enhanced their mutual trust on this issue.

And the US has repeatedly stressed in their consultations that strengthening relations between China and Latin American countries will be good for Latin-America’s stability and development.

Topic: Chinese workers kidnapped in Colombia

Q: It was reported that several Chinese employees were kidnapped in Colombia by unidentified armed militants. How are they now? Could you release some information about the rescue efforts?

A: Four Chinese workers were kidnapped by some unknown armed militants in Caquetá province in Colombia on June 8, 2011. We have urged the Colombia authority to spare no effort to carry on the rescue work under the premise of guaranteeing the safety of hostages. Since then, the Chinese embassy in Colombia has kept in close cooperation and contact with Colombia’s relevant departments. The rescue work has not finished yet, but the safety of the four hostages can be guaranteed. Chinese companies are facing more risks as they go global on a larger scale. We need to increase our political backup and diplomatic guarantee to them, strengthen the consular protection and safeguard their legitimate interests. Meanwhile we advise Chinese people in Latin America to improve their sense of safety and precaution.

Q: How about China-Mexico relations?

A: China and Mexico are both developing countries and are working at enhancing people’s living standards. They hold the same positions on many international issues and regularly cooperate on these..

China and Mexico have some trade friction over trade imbalance problems, but we hope both sides can deal with the problems reasonably and from a development point of view.

We hope both can take active measures to promote the diverse, comprehensive and healthy development of the two countries’ economic and trade relations.

February 14 marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Mexico. We believe the relations can become more comprehensive, steadier and healthier with the two countries’ joint efforts in the future.

Q: Can you talk about the relationship between China and Brazil?

A: Brazil is one of the biggest countries in Latin America and one of the emerging powers in the region. The China-Brazil relationship is one of the most important between China and Latin America.

In recent years, the strategic partnership between China and Brazil has made considerable progress. They maintain a good momentum of high-level exchanges and the political mutual trust is deepened.

Their economical cooperation is also deepening constantly, which has brought tangible benefits to people of both countries. Bilateral trade volume exceeded $80 billion in 2011. Investment cooperation in finance, energy, steel, and machine manufacturing has also made great progress, and is expanding constantly.

China and Brazil have active exchanges in science, technology and culture as well.

The cooperation in the fields of Earth resource satellites, agricultural technology and aviation is progressing continuously. And the cooperation in culture and education is also very close.

China’s Confucius Institute Headquarters opened two Confucius Institutes and a Confucius school in Brazil and Brazil’s important media institutions have sent many journalists to work in China.

China and Brazil are both developing countries and have broad and consistent interests on major international issues. The Chinese government attaches great importance to relations with Brazil and believes the two countries’ cooperation in various fields will make great progress with their joint efforts.

 

Peru to set up sovereign wealth fund

Img courtesy of Wikicommons

Peru plans to set up a sovereign wealth fund, taking advantage of record foreign reserves and metal prices to finance investments in infrastructure and education, Finance Minister Ismael Benavides said.

The Andean country may tap its $44 billion in foreign currency reserves and tax revenue to create the fund before the President Alan Garcia’s term ends in July, Benavides said in an interview in New York today.

“We have not only reserves but extraordinary revenues from mineral exports,” the 65-year-old Benavides said, without providing details about how the fund would work. “We might come up with something in the first quarter next year.”

The fund would be modeled after a $12.8 billion fund Chile created in 2006 to hoard windfall profits from surging copper prices, Benavides said. Peru is the world’s largest producer of silver and second-largest producer of copper after Chile. Metals accounted for 62 percent of exports in the first half of 2010.

Click here to read the full article, direct from Bloomberg

Newswire: Asia-Pacific

international.gc.ca

U.S.’s Treasury’s Geithner to attend Singapore APEC meeting – Reuters

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner travels to Singapore to attend a meeting of finance ministers who are members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for one day next month.

China Minmetals eyes gold mines in Australia, Canada – Reuters

* Company to start construction at Peru copper mine next yr

* Production at Peru mine scheduled to begin in 2012 (Adds background, bylines)

By Rujun Shen and Joseph Chaney

TIANJIN, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Chinese state-owned metals trader China Minmetals Corp. [CHMIN.UL] is looking to buy gold mines in Australia and Canada, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Huang Dongmei, deputy general manager of China Minmetals Exploration and Development Ltd, made the remarks at an industry forum in China’s port city of Tianjin.

Separately, a Minmetals executive at the China Mining conference here said on Wednesday that the company would launch construction at its Galeno copper mine in Peru next year, with production due to start in 2012. [ID:nPEK200915]

Ecuador Seeks Cash to End Three-Year Oil Output Drop (Update1) – Bloomberg

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — Ecuador, the smallest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is seeking to attract investment from state-run companies in Latin America, Russia and China to reverse a three-year drop in crude output.

Ecuador is forging alliances to explore and produce crude as lower investment by privately-owned companies causes production to drop as much as 6.6 percent this year, Julio Gonzalez, undersecretary of hydrocarbons policy at the Ministry of Non-Renewable Natural Resources, said in an interview.

“The government’s priority is to do this with state companies,” Gonzalez said yesterday at the ministry in Quito.

Kevin Rudd’s vision for Asia-Pacific community evolves – The Australian

KEVIN Rudd’s concept of an Asia-Pacific community by 2020 has been canvassed at the weekend’s East Asia summit in Thailand together with a rival vision from new Japanese leader Yukio Hatoyama.

East Asian leaders meeting in Hua Hin yesterday discussed the broad regional architecture, with the Prime Minister promoting his plan both at the formal leaders’ meeting and in a series on bilateral discussions.

“What I detect across the region is an openness to a discussion about how we evolve our regional architecture into the future,” Mr Rudd said yesterday.

“It’s important that we are in a conscious discussion and a conscious process to evolve options for regional institutions in the future rather than just sitting back and waiting for big problems to emerge.”

New potential strikes looming for Peru’s mining industry

Shougang is not the only miner down in Peru for which trouble is brewing. Peru’s national federation of mine workers said on Friday (yesterday), it is planning to hold walkouts across the entire sector next week.

libcom.org

“The position of the workers is to go on strike on Monday starting at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT) and leave the mines,” Luis Castillo, the federation’s director, told Reuters.

Reuters reports some unions have agreed to stay on the job, but considering that Peru is the largest producer of silver in the world, #2 of zinc, #3 of copper, #4 of lead, and #6 in gold—such a walk out does have the potential ripple over into global spot prices for the above mentioned metals.

When miners held a similar strike in mid-2008 and the strike helped push copper prices toward a record high—although this was at the peak of bull markets, the market effect is no less noted. The underlying point; markets are watching and investors pay attention to these kinds of things.

Company’s which will be affected include, Volcan (VOL_pb.LM), Newmont (NEM), Freeport-McMoRan’s (FXN), Xstrata’s (XTA.L), Buenaventura (BVN), Southern Copper (PCU) and BHP Billiton (BHP).

Click here to access a more details story on this topic from Reuters.

As always, CSA will keep you up to date with relevant developments as they unfold.

~ Benito

[Commodities] — Is the rally over?

Commodity Rally May Falter on Supply, Speculators

June 29 (Bloomberg) — Commodities, heading for the first quarterly advance in a year, may struggle to repeat their gains in the next three months as supply expands and speculators sell.

Nickel may average 29 percent less in the third quarter than now, crude oil 16 percent, copper 14 percent and gasoline 10 percent, analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg show. Hedge funds and speculators cut their bets on higher prices by 23 percent in the two weeks ended June 23, the first back-to-back drop since March, based on an index using U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. The World Bank said June 22 the global recession will be deeper than it expected three months ago.

“Commodities have gotten a little ahead of themselves,” said Walter “Bucky” Hellwig, who helps oversee $30 billion at Morgan Asset Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “As long as there’s uncertainty about growth, that’s going to be headwind commodities won’t be able to overcome.”

Commodities rose 14 percent this quarter, led by nickel, oil and sugar, after three consecutive declines, according to the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials. This year’s 57 percent advance in oil costs, combined with widening budget deficits, may cause another global slump, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economics professor who predicted the financial crisis.

Click here to access the full article from Bloomberg

Laying the foundation for a tri-nation Boliviaran mining giant in South America

[South-South Cooperation] – Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia

The Ecuadorian government announced plans yesterday of the establishment of a joint mining company with the country of Venezuela and possibly Bolivia. You can read all the vague details in this article from Chinamining.

“We are going to build a great mining company in association with Venezuela and perhaps with Bolivia to exploit some veins of mine ore returned to the State from private hands,”said Ecuadorian Minister of Mines and Petroleum Derlis Palacios.

Jim Rogers: "We are going to have serious food shortages in a few years"

Jim Rogers sits down with Bloomberg host Haslinda Amin in his home base of Singapore. Haslinda gets a full twenty minutes to test his patience while she asks what his opinions are on investing in a variety of investment categories. Commodities. Currencies. North American Natural Gas. Yen Carry Trade. Agriculture. Equities. ETF’s.

As usual, Jim Rogers is sticking to what he knows best-raw materials. If you’re a new reader, or have not heard of Jim Rogers definitely run a search on the right of his name to bring up past posts and videos including him.

Part 1 /3

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x7LbA9hx6Y&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1]

Part 2 / 3

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Part 3 / 3

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWLjEEEIEL0&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1]

Jim Rogers: Speak Mandarin, Don't Buy America

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKslM3KDLmY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1]

Copper in focus: Southern Copper Peru (PCU) updates

Southern Copper Peru – listed on the NYSE, under the ticker PCU (google finance info)

Southern Copper Peru has recently has seen its shares fall across all exchanges in which this Mexican Conglomerate trades– There are many reasons and factors at play, however at the moment a mix of both the fact copper has recently declined in international markets, but also because, a important area of Peru, where Southern Copper operates is experiencing union strikes and are protesters who have blocked Peru’s main roads the area.

Argentina witnessed la Presidente– la Senora Kichner deliver a speech this evening about her own countries protesters blocked roads. I may not love their populist rhetoric or economic policy, but Mrs. Kirchner said something that makes sense… (translated from her speech shown on CNN espanol), “a select group of society can not paralyze the road and the country as a whole, they have no right to disrupt all the people’s in their own self-pursuit.”

I admit I may be butchering the speech in the moment but, the fact remains… In Latin America, roads are blocked and then the economy stops. Without infrastructure, or the preventing of people from using the little infrastructure that does exist, Latin America remains in a “catch 22.” In situations where it socially may make sense to implement reforms, governments are forced to make concessions due to necessity.

Photos below are pictures of PCU’s operations in Peru and links to available financial info– via Google.com/finance and yahoo finance –> Southern Copper Peru (PCU)

I recall being in Tarapoto, Peru, in the Peruvian province of San Martin in 2002. Rice workers had paralyzed the region because US subsidies had made their rice more expensive than the also available imported rice from the US. The protesters took over the town square over and as temporary tourist I had to rush through the back roads in the amazon to the Airport, and hide out in a back office until a flight could take myself and my family of 12 back to Lima.

Click here to view a article in English I was able to find about the incident.

It is ironic food prices are now so high, Tarapoto’s Rice industry is now growing rice and actually making a profit, although US subsidies still aren’t help the overall market. The fact and main point I am attempting to get across is that all it took for protesters to paralyze the region was to blockade one highway–leaving the city isolated. and disrupting economic activity in the rest of the region due to the fact major roads pass through Tarapoto, the biggest city in the region.

I hope in a general sense things improve– both on the part of the protesters in Peru, who do deserve new benefits as a result of high commodity prices, but also for Peru as a whole which in reality suffers a great deal, proportionately speaking when events such as this occur.