{"id":12641,"date":"2018-12-04T09:43:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T17:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=12641"},"modified":"2018-12-04T09:54:44","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T17:54:44","slug":"china-panama-cooperation-benefits-the-whole-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=12641","title":{"rendered":"China-Panama cooperation benefits the whole world"},"content":{"rendered":"

By People\u2019s Daily<\/em><\/p>\n

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A Chinese vessel passes by the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. Photo by Zhu Dongjun from People\u2019s Daily<\/em><\/p>\n

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A long shot of the Panama City. Photo by Zhu Dongjun from People\u2019s Daily<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Panama Canal, connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, is a \u201cgolden waterway\u201d for world shipping.<\/p>\n

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Striving for interconnection, Panama is currently promoting the National Logistics Strategy of Panama 2030<\/em>, with an aim to build itself into a global logistics hub.<\/p>\n

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This strategy echoes Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative<\/em>, as a result of which the two countries are a pair of natural partners for the joint construction of the Belt and Road.<\/p>\n

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The expansion project of the Canal was completed two years ago, which has allowed ships of larger size to transit and further enlarged the handling capacity of the waterway. The centenary canal has since taken a new lease of life.<\/p>\n

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At the inauguration ceremony of the project, Chinese container vessel COSCO Shipping Panama became the first vessel to transit the expanded Panama Canal. It revealed the importance that Panama attached to China\u2019s marine logistics.<\/p>\n

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At present, China is the Canal\u2019s second largest user, as well as the second largest source of imports of goods and the second largest destination of exports of goods.<\/p>\n

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Statistics from the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) indicated that over 22 million tons of goods transported through the Canal were from China, and nearly 20 million tons were to China in the 2018 fiscal year.<\/p>\n

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PCA former officer Rodolfo Sabonge told People\u2019s Daily<\/em> that the number of Chinese vessels passing through the Panama Canal had been surging from China\u2019s accession to the WTO. \u201cChina\u2019s economic and trade growth is good news to the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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Apart from the direct contribution to the Canal\u2019s revenue, Chinese enterprises also participated in the expansion and upgrade projects of the ports along the waterway, promoting comprehensive improvement of the Canal\u2019s operation capability.<\/p>\n

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Colon Free Trade Zone (FTZ) located on the Pacific bank of the Canal is the largest FTZ in the Western Hemisphere, and also the second largest in the world. China is the largest supplier of goods of the FTZ.<\/p>\n

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The Margarita Island port, invested by China\u2019s Lanbridge Group, belongs to the FTZ. Currently the port is under construction, and will become one of the core ports of the world upon completion.<\/p>\n

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The Panama Canal is one of the world\u2019s most important waterways where about 6 percent of the global trade passes annually. Therefore, the navigation of the Canal is always seen as a \u201cbarometer\u201d of global trade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eric Dormoi, foreign trade advisor of the Panamanian trade company Exporta Consulting, told People\u2019s Daily<\/em> that his country did not want to see the rising trend of trade protectionism, explaining that the more commodities passed through the Panama Canal, the more profits his country could gain.<\/p>\n

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\u201cProtectionism not only impacts Panama, but also the trade and economy of Central America. President Xi\u2019s proposal to build an open world economy aims to protect global interests, and that\u2019s why he has received support from most of the countries in the world,\u201d Dormoi said.<\/p>\n

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Rosmer Jorado, president of Panamanian Association of Exporters believes that the Belt and Road construction had promoted Panama\u2019s light manufacturing and assembling industries, saying it is also conducive to the country\u2019s infrastructure construction.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPanama is the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to sign the memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road cooperation with China, and the Belt and Road initiative<\/em> will help Panama attract investment and secure the country\u2019s position as the gate of the America,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

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An open world economy was the lifeline of the Panama Canal, said Manuel Grimaldo, general manager of the Colon Free Trade Zone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe alignment of China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative<\/em> and the National Logistics Strategy of Panama 2030<\/em> conforms to the trend of history,\u201d Grimaldo noted, adding that China-Panama cooperation will benefit the whole world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The general manager expressed his confidence in the prospect of China-Panama trade and believed that President Xi\u2019s visit would further promote the progress of the two countries\u2019 cooperation in economy and trade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By People\u2019s Daily A Chinese vessel...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12641"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12646,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12641\/revisions\/12646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}