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QUITO, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's experience in terms of development and structural reforms can contribute to helping Latin America with its strive for better long-term economic development, said Ecuadorian researcher Milton Reyes in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday.
China's experience is interesting as it has maintained a long-term strategy without being tied to a sole vision for economic growth, according to Reyes who is from the Asia-Pacific Observatory of the Latin American Association for Integration.
"The country has had the flexibility to progress while measuring risks bit by bit, allowing for sustainable economic growth," he added.
Reyes outlined how, in his mind, Latin America has swung between two political, economic and ideological strategies in its history: a central state focused on domestic growth and a growth mode closely tied to free trade.
"These purist visions have not allowed for very flexible development and have not allowed Latin American economies to adapt easily to the global context," Reyes observed.
This background means that Latin America must be careful when exploring which strategies to follow, according to Reyes. However, he said that China's progressive attitude to reform is applicable as it "realizes structural reforms, step by step, trying to build its own development based on its own interests."
Reyes added that it would therefore be interesting to work very closely with China in order to understand its experience in certain key areas. The partners have agreed on the possibility of setting up special economic zones, but Reyes argues this would just be the beginning.
"We could go beyond that and set up joint production between national companies in order to create strategic alliances and joint industrial policies. This could generate shared benefits which could be very interesting for the region," he noted.
In terms of China's financing in the region, Reyes credited it with allowing "our countries to fund projects that we have deemed to be convenient."
"When a country seeks to focus on its internal growth, the main bottleneck can often be finding financing. In this case, Chinese financing has been useful for solving these problems and avoiding the trap of enacting policies that benefit neither our interest nor our reality," added the researcher.
In 2014, on a regional tour, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a series of cooperation programs, including providing loans worth 20 billion U.S. dollars to finance infrastructure and other projects and a 5 billion- U.S. dollar fund to boost China-Latin American cooperation.
"China is a strategic partner for the region, allowing us politically and economically to claim more autonomy and sovereignty within the international arena," concluded Reyes.
