South America rises to new challenges

Panama, a country that connects Central America and South America, and shares a border with Colombia, can be a key player in the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a Panamanian business leader.

Giovanni Ferrari, general manager of Panama's Colon Free Trade Zone, told Xinhua News Agency last month that China and Panama have "much to explore" within the framework of Colon, the largest free-trade zone in the Americas, with some 2,600 companies.

Ferrari was speaking on the sidelines of the 13th China-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit in Panama City.

Already home to some 50 Chinese companies, Colon can provide more businesses from the country with the facilities they need to expand their manufacturing, distribution and services to Latin America within the BRI framework, he said.

Ferrari said that in the 1950s, Colon mainly attracted investment from European companies, especially in the pharmaceutical sector. In the 1970s, Japanese electronics companies moved into the area, and in the 1990s, South Korean corporations in the same field arrived.

After 2010, Chinese companies began to enter Colon, Ferrari said.

"China and Panama have a historic responsibility to champion free trade or free access to the markets," he stressed.

Such a partnership would benefit not only the two countries, but consumers and the world as a whole, he said.

In December 2018, President Xi made the first state visit by a leader of the People's Republic of China to Panama. In Panama City, he urged the business communities in China and Panama to expand cooperation and achieve common development.

China is the second-largest client of the Panama Canal after the US. In June 2016, the Chinese container ship Andronikos became the first vessel to pass through the newly expanded Panama Canal.

In 1854, a ship carrying Chinese workers, many from Guangdong province, docked in Panama in preparation for work on the Panama Canal Railway.

More than 300,000 people of Chinese descent live in Panama, accounting for 10 percent of the population, according to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, and the Central American country's connection with China dates to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

It is estimated that some 80 percent of Chinese residents in Panama come from Huadu, Guangdong, where some settlements are nicknamed "Panama Village" due to the high number of locals who have migrated to the Latin American nation.

Xinhua contributed to this story.