Rafael Pino-Pinto, governor of Panama province in Panama, was also present at the expo, as a representative of a friendly city of Chongqing.

China and Panama established diplomatic relations in June last year. Five months later, during Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela's visit to China, Panama and China signed a memorandum to jointly promote the BRI.

With a friendly cities agreement signed during the expo, Rafael Pino-Pinto said in a roundtable meeting that he expects more cooperation and exchanges between the two sides in intelligence, trade, culture and other areas.

The BRI connects the world, and every country and every person can achieve economic benefits from the initiative, the governor said.

He introduced the advantages of his country, saying that the Republic of Panama connects Central America and Caribbean countries, allowing a country with only 400,000 people to open up to a market with 600 million people. He also said that China is the second largest user of the Panama Canal.

For bilateral cooperation, he said China can learn about logistics from Panama, and that since artificial intelligence research in Panama just started, there are many things that Panama can learn from China in this field. He added that the expo came at exactly the right time, especially when the world is transforming from the information era to the intelligent era.