Guan Jintao's schedule has been really tight these days. He is the coordinator of many things during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Chile.[Special coverage]
"Latin America has been a critical part of China's going-out strategy," Guan said. "Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit will definitely move trade and other economic cooperation forward."
Guan has helped connect many Chinese and Chilean business interests.
On his business card are six different titles: Guan is the chairman of the Chile-China Economic and Trade Development Association; chairman of the Beijing Overseas Association; vice-chairman of the Chile-China Peace Promotion Association; chairman of the board of D&Q Mining Ltd; chairman of the board of Chinatour; and general manager of Vina Camino Real, one of the oldest wineries in Chile.
"Everything I do has an aim of promoting the economic, trade and culture exchange between China and Chile," Guan said.
Although he's been in Chile for more than 10 years, Guan still has a Beijing accent.
In 2004, Guan opened the first Peking Duck restaurant in Santiago. Guan wants to promote the food culture from his hometown. By getting involved in many kinds of businesses in Chile, Guan has developed observations and perspectives about economic and trade issues in Chile.
Chinese exports to Chile are primarily textiles, clothing, ceramics, chemicals, medicine, tools and consumer electronics.
However, Guan believes that the market for textiles and clothing is becoming saturated.
"Now above 60% of the textiles and clothing products in Chile came from China," he said. "Chile is not a country with a big population, so I don't think there is huge room to grow in the future."
Chilean exports to China are mainly copper, niter (the mineral form of potassium nitrate), pulp, paper, fishmeal and timber, expanding to red wine, marine algae, potassium sulfate and fruit in recent years.
Among the fruits that China imports from all over the world, 98% of blueberries, 80% of cherries and 50% of apples and grapes are from Chile, according to Chinese Ambassador to Chile Li Baorong.
However, as far as Guan knows, while Chinese have been buying products, there are other countries, like Japan, that have been investing in Chile on a much larger scale.
For example, Japan is involved in deep-sea fishing and mining in Chile.
"Chile is a country with abundant nature recourses, especially its mining industry," Guan said. "However, Chile exports a lot of raw materials rather than products that are deeply processed. The historical reason is the European colonists used to despoil the raw materials rather than develop techniques to process them."
Guan said China could do more business in Chile because of its technology and also a surplus of machines and equipments.
Guan used as an example a machinery company in Liaoning province, which has idle equipment in stock.
"Simply selling this equipment would be difficult," he said. "But it would be a good model if they cooperated with the mining industry here. On one hand, they could get their equipment out. On the other, Chile is really in need of this equipment. This would be a win-win cooperation," Guan said.
Relations between China and Chile began in 1970, when Chile became the first South American country to establish a bilateral relationship with the People's Republic of China. Afterwards, bilateral economic relations have developed considerably.
Chile and China signed a free trade agreement in 2006, under which China and Chile plan to extend zero duty treatment phase by phase to cover 97 percent of products in 10 years' time.
