UN official urges LatAm to make most of China's Belt and Road Initiative

OPTIMIZING COOPERATION

The ECLAC chief recommended that China work with subregions and sectors to facilitate its cooperation with the CELAC.

"Perhaps the best way to operate is by subregions -- South America on the one hand, Central America on the other -- and outlining the areas of opportunity," said Barcena.

She sees more areas of opportunity with South America than with the rest of the region, because "those countries are prepared to increase exchanges with China, which in the past decade grew 22-fold."

Regional blocs, such as the four-member Pacific Alliance gathering Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile, represent another instance of integration that can promote cooperation.

"Pacific Alliance countries ... I believe have made more progress (towards integration) and are making concrete proposals, such as joint marketing schemes, to be able to export some products as a group to China. But I think there is still much progress left to be made," said Barcena.

In the meantime, regional countries could help promote a more cohesive approach to cooperation by organizing negotiations on concrete proposals in key sectors, such as energy, tourism, mining and others, she said.

Barcena said she was optimistic about future China-CELAC ties, given the progress made within the framework of the initial 2015-2019 cooperation plan signed in 2015 in Beijing.

According to the plan, China aims to achieve $500 billion of bilateral trade with Latin America and the Caribbean and pump into the region 250 billion dollars of direct investment.

Today "we can say that trade has increased to around $266 billion. We are halfway to the target that was set out," noted Barcena.