The establishment of diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and
the People's Republic of China offers opportunities to boost trade
and for Chinese companies to use Costa Rica as their base of
operations, former Central Bank president Eduardo Lizano said on
Tuesday.
Lizano was attending a conference on the impact of the
development of China's economy on Costa Rica.
Lizano said China's economic growth had been very high for the
past 20 years and the country had transformed itself into a "world
economic power, whose economy could be larger than Germany's this
year to reach third place world wide, behind only the US and
Japan."
"Costa Rica's participation in international economy production
chains and in the growth of China represents a major opportunity,"
he added.
"The flow of trade would increase from China to Costa Rica and
from Costa Rica to other nations, especially the US, above all if
we can pass a free trade agreement," Lizano said.
China is Costa Rica's second largest trade partner. Costa Rica
sales to China were US$1.08 billion in 2006 and reached US$628
million in the first half of 2007.
"China's expansion will allow Costa Rica to have better supplies
of overseas goods and services, obliging local producers to compete
in some important fields," he said.
Costa Rica's Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, told the same forum
that establishing relations with China, on June 1, is part of a
process of seeking competition, creating larger markets and
stronger relationships with the world, especially Asian
nations.
He said that he was sure that normalizing relations with China
was the right decision. "Most likely the 21st century will be
Asia's century," Stagno said, "it would be sad if Costa Rica were
not present... an active participant."
(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2007)
