Peru expects more trade opportunities for small businesses to come out of the upcoming 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima, and expects that Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit will boost bilateral trade and tourism cooperation, according to Ursula Desilu Leon Chempen, Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism.
This year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting is set to be held on Friday and Saturday in the Peruvian capital under the theme "Empower, Include, Grow." The summit will gather leaders from 21 member economies across the Asia-Pacific, including the United States and China, the two largest economies in the world, as well as other major economies in South America and Southeast Asia.
President Xi is scheduled to attend the APEC summit and pay a state visit to Peru at the invitation of President Dina Boluarte. This will be Xi's second visit to the country following his 2016 state visit.
During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) ahead of the high-profile event, Leon said the China-Peru partnership is best represented by the Chinese-aided Chancay Port infrastructure project, and expressed her hope for further tourism exchanges between the two nations.
"For us, it is very important, this visit, because China is our principal strategic partnership. Port of Chancay - this is an important hub of logistics and will offer digital routes to Asia, reducing transit time to China by 10 or 12 days additional. It's very important of this visit for encouraging the tourism. And [for] this opportunity, we have a great expectation to increase the tourism in Peru," she said.
Peru chairs APEC for the third time this year, after hosting in 2008 and 2016, with more than 160 APEC-related meetings in the cities of Arequipa, Cusco, Trujillo, Pucallpa and Lima.
As the most influential economic cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region, with members contributing over 60 percent of the global GDP, APEC has played a robust role in promoting Asia-Pacific trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, economic growth and technological progress, and the flow of goods and people.
Highlighting that the mechanism has strengthened Peru's trade links with other economies, Leon said that this year's APEC summit is expected to create more opportunities for small-sized businesses in the country.
"We host, for the third time, the APEC 2024. And it's very important mentioning it, for example, Peru has established 22 free trade agreements with 58 economies covering 82 percent of the world's GDP and reaching over 3.2 billion potential consumers. Trade agreements are very important for us, for not only facilitators of trade between the economies. It is an important point for a different interchange of the opportunities in trade for little enterprises, little entrepreneurs," she said.
Peruvian trade minister says APEC summit to help small businesses thrive
Peruvian trade minister says APEC summit to help small businesses thrive
