Economy, Planning and Development Minister Juan Temistocles Montas, currently visiting mainland China, has gone public saying that the time has come for a strategic alliance between the People’s Republic of China and the Dominican Republic. The DR has commercial ties with China, but maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
During his visit to China, Montas has been promoting the DR’s geographical position and the many trade agreements the country has already signed that give it privileged access to markets in the United States, Europe, Central America and the Caribbean. “We offer attractive investment opportunities in infrastructure and energy,” he said, as reported in Hoy, stressing that Chinese investment could help develop increased maritime connectivity and logistics in the Caribbean.” Montas made the statements in a conference on Relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Dominican Republic: Prospects for Cooperation in the Caribbean Region.” He was invited by the Chinese Contemporary Relations Institute and the Dominican Republic Trade Development Office in China, according to a Ministry press release. Academics, government officials and diplomats attended the event.
As reported, on Monday, 8 April, prior to the conference, Montas met with vice minister Chen Fengxiang of the Communist Party’s International Division and Zhang Qingli, vice president of the Consulting Conference of the Chinese People. As reported he also met with Wang Jinzhen, vice president of the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade and with Jiang Jianqing, president of the Industrial and Trade Bank of China.
Montas was accompanied by senator Charlie Mariotti and the Dominican Republic’s trade representative in China, Rosa Ng.
China and the Dominican Republic maintain trade relations since 1997. Bilateral trade was more than 1.2 billion in 2011. The DR is the second trading partner of China in the Caribbean after Cuba.
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