Ecuador,A Business Bridge between China and Latin America

The Republic of Ecuador lies in northwestern of South America， northeast to Colombia， adjacent to the southeast border with Peru， at the transborder equator of Northwest Pacific. Due to its special geographical location， it was the first stop that China reached to Latin American countries. In recent years， Ecuador and China have kept more and more close relationship in the fields of trade and tourism. To explore more cooperation opportunities in the future， China’s Foreign Trade invited Mr. Jorge Hidalgo， Consulate-General of Ecuador in Shanghai， to have an exclusive interview with us.

Q: What does the ConsulateGeneral of Ecuador do for the bilateral economic and trade cooperation between Ecuador and China? Would you introduce the profile of current cooperation?

A: Shanghai and Guangzhou Consulate General have already been opened for two years and a half. They are dealing counselor affairs with Ecuadorians in Shanghai， Jiangsu， Zhejiang or Anhui etc. These are with Chinese who are making business with Ecuador. Take Shanghai as an example. The increase of business of Shanghai with Ecuador is among 25% or 30%. So the purpose of this office is also to try to increase the offer of Ecuadorian products in China. Our export increased to 90 million dollars in 2010. In 2011， the export volume is expected to reach 190 million dollars. It means that the export is more than doubled in such a short time.

There are some reasons behind the rapid growth. I believe the most important one is that Ecuador has very good products to offer to China， for example， agricultural products. We are rich in fruits like banana， pineapple， mango， and lemon. Also we have started to export some seafood to China. The seafood of Ecuador is of very high quality. It is well known that our seafood is among the best in the world. We have for example tuna， shrimps that the Chinese people are very interested in. Chinese economy is growing with each passing day. They need to consume high-quality food. And our food is required by the Chinese every day. So we hope in the future， products like Ecuadorian coffee， chocolate， and roses will also come to China. Our roses are among the best in the world. They are not only beautiful， but can also be kept for a long time. You can see them without change for more than a week， after the trip from Ecuador to Shanghai.

Another important thing for Ecuadorian food’s travel to Shanghai is logistics. The logistics fee from Ecuador to China is close to 4 million dollars. But this 4 million dollars reflects the imbalance of trade between China and Ecuador. China exported about 2002 million dollars to Ecuador. But we exported only about 190 million dollars to China. However it’s the figure without counting the oil in， as the oil is the commodity we can sell almost anywhere. We have to try to solve this trade imbalance. But how? One of the solutions is for both governments to facilitate investments. Nowadays， the investment from Chinese government to Ecuador is very big. For example， we have already signed 7 power stations contracts with China to produce electricity. This 7 power stations are built by 6 Chinese companies. The projects are financed by the Development Bank of China or the Ex-Im Bank. Another channel is the direct investment of Chinese companies in Ecuador. A lot of delegations of Chinese companies have come to Ecuador hoping that Ecuador could become a bridge between China and Latin America.

Q: Could you please further explain the role of bridge?

A: Because China and Ecuador is the closest compared with other LatinAmerican countries. Here you have a large market to export your commodities. You have Peru， you have Chile， you have Columbia， and you have a Free Trade Zone in North America. I will give you an example. If you want to export cars from China to Ecuador， there are two ways. If you export in big quantitiy， you may put 5，000 cars in a ship. But that is not the case because the market is not that size. So usually we put them in the containers with the cars unset. So in one container you may put only two completed cars， or six to seven spare parts. If you sail from Chi- na， the Chinese ships will have to travel to Panama Canal and cross through. It means the same products to the US， Europe and other countries like Argentina will take about 65-75 days. But if we send the products to Ecuador and let Ecuador do the rest delivery， it will only cost a maximum time of 30 days. So your time saved， and time is money. And also we are trying to sign a “Free Sky Agreement”. Why? Because we don’t have airlines. We can’t fly from Shanghai or Beijing to Ecuador directly. We have to improve the logistics in terms of air and ship to meet the rapid growing demand from bilateral trade.

China has very good engineers， very good people， amazing machineries， and amazing software. We hope to have more business， both B2B and B2C， with them.

Q: If Chinese companies want to invest in your country in terms of energy and minerals， will you give them some favorable policies? Or， do you have any plans to attract Chinese investment?

A: We do have lots of plans to attract investment， and Chinese companies are especially welcome. It is the investment law in Ecuador. And there is already investment working with the oil business. Say Sinopec， they exploit about 80，000 barrels per day. But the total production that comes to China is about 250，000 to 300，000 barrels per day. In the case of minerals， a big Chinese company made an investment of about 3 billion dollars in copper mining at the first stage. Ecuador has lots of projects to attract Chinese companies to invest there. That is why a lot of company delegations come to visit Ecuador. One of the programs is for July 8-12， 2012. The Chinese government is going to take about 50 companies to visit Ecuador and see projects about energy， mining， wood， and agriculture. The really important thing is that we want this type of investment to be an economy booster， at the mean time， respect the environment and the human being. So you see the “bridge” is going to work.

Q: I’m quite interested in the tourism industry exchange between the two countries. Nowa- days more and more Chinese people go abroad for travel. I heard that Ecuador is very beautiful. Could you introduce your policy in terms of tourism?

A: Yes. Ecuador is a unique tourist place. For example， we have Galapagos National Park. It is unique in the world because we have a mixture of animals from the Antarctica and those in the hot places. We have lots of penguins which belong to cold places. It is also a human heritage. Mr. Charles Darwin developed the theory of human evolution in Galapagos. We have another human heritage — our capital Quito. The downtown of Quito is a human heritage. It is a spectacular city with the tradition of Spain culture and Indian culture. For example， it has the highest density of churches in the world. Every one hundred meters we have a church in the downtown area. The churches have very unique architecture.

We have a legal frame for the Chinese and Ecuadorian tourism too. This legal frame is an agreement between the tourist ministers of China and Ecuador about group tourism signed in 2007. In 2009， Chinese authorities declared Ecuador as a proved destination for tourists. Our legal frame allowed the Chinese operators to sign agreements with Ecuadorian operators in order to make sure that the flow of tourists will have good quality. We have another good experience in the year of 2008. There was a lot of migration from China because the Ecuadorian government didn’t ask for visa from the Chinese citizens. In the year 2011， there were about 12，000 Chinese people come to Ecuador not only for tourist purpose， but also for business. Another piece of good news is that one of the tourist offices in Shanghai has already signed a contract with an Ecuadorian operator， and they expect this type of tourism to begin this year. I hope the Chinese year of dragon will be the year of dragon for tourism between China and Ecuador. As I mentioned before， one of the keys in this process will be to make direct flight. It will push tourism to boom.

Now the visa application for group visitors is easy and fast. We can also offer lots of options to tourists in programs of 5 days， 15 days， 3 weeks， and 1 month. It’s going to be affordable for the Chinese. The only hope is that we can have direct flight between us. It will change everything. We would recommend Galapagos at least once in your life because of its beauty. And we also have a very nice highway along the sea. You can go there step by step because it’s really beautiful. And the weather in Ecuador is among the best in the world. We don’t have a winter time， and we don’t have a summer time. We only have a raining season and a non-raining season. For example， in our capital Quito， you don’t need any air conditioning because the temperature is between 10 to 23 degree centigrade. This year and in the last three years， Ecuador is named as the first option for the retirements， people who finish their works. Here we have lots of houses bought by foreigners who live here along costal places too.