At the seminar sponsored by the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), CASS Vice President Chen Jiagui said Chile was the first South American country to forge diplomatic ties with China.

The past three decades have witnessed gratifying development in bilateral relations, Chen said. Since 1990, there have been frequent exchanges of visits between the two countries and their economic and trade relations have developed rapidly, he added.

Chile is now China's second largest trade partner in Latin America and it was the first South American country to sign an accord with China on China's accession to the World Trade Organization, he said.

Statistics provided by the General Administration of Customs show that bilateral trade volume between China and Chile totaled 1. 789 billion U.S. dollars during the first ten months of this year, a 72.5% increase over the corresponding period last year

Jorge Tarud, Chilean ambassador to China, said at the seminar that China is one of the most important cooperation partners of Chile, and the Chilean Government attaches importance to its relations with China.

He said the two countries' friendly relations of cooperation in diverse sectors have made marked development over the past three decades.

The ambassador expressed hope that the two sides will join efforts to push ahead such mutually beneficial relations of cooperation.

Rodrigo Diaz Albonico, director of the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile and Alvaro Saieh, president of Chile's Copesa Group, reviewed the 30 years of bilateral relations on the occasion.

Present were officials from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, entrepreneurs and scholars from the two countries as well as diplomatic envoys from Latin American and Caribbean countries.

(Xinhua 12/07/2000)