On the evening of November l5, 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Governor of Sao Paulo State Geraldo Alckmin and the two sides held in-depth talks on further strengthening friendly exchanges and economic and trade cooperation.

Hu Jintao said he felt very pleased for having the opportunity to visit the beautiful and richly endowed Sao Paulo State. He noted that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of China-Brazil diplomatic ties. In this significant year, the leaders of China and Brazil have realized exchanges of visits, which fully demonstrates the great importance the two sides attached to bilateral ties. President Hu Jintao added that he has held fruitful talks with president Lula and other Brazilian leaders and reached broad consensus on promoting the development of China-Brazil strategic partnership. The two sides signed a range of agreements and documents involving economy, trade, aerospace and tourism and made substantial headways towards further enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation. This visit reaches the goal of expanding consensus, enhancing mutual trust, exploring cooperation and realizing common development and strongly pushes for the development of China-Brazil ties.

When talking about exchanges and cooperation with Sao Paulo State, Hu Jintao said that this state is the most economically developed one in Brazil, as well as the most concentrated place for the Chinese living in Brazil. It plays an important bridging and linking role for pushing for China-Brazil friendly cooperation. Chinese trade companies and agencies in Brazil are mostly concentrated here. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and Embraer-the Brazilian aviation industry company, located in the suburb of Sao Paulo State, carry out two model projects of South-South cooperation respectively with China, namely the earth resources satellite and feeder liner. It is hoped that Sao Paulo State will continue to give play to its advantages as the major financial center and commodity-distributing center in South America so as to make more contributions to promoting China-Brazil economic and technological cooperation. He indicated his belief that with joint efforts by the two sides, the friendly exchanges and cooperation between China and Sao Paulo State in various fields will surely be further strengthened.

Alckmin congratulated Hu Jintao upon the great success of his visit. He praised the important contributions by overseas Chinese to the economic development of Sao Paulo State, holding that since both Brazil and China are developing countries, they enjoy strong complementarities and broad prospects for cooperation. In particular, as Sao Paulo State is the largest financial and economic center of South America with developed industry and animal husbandry as well as smooth flow of goods, Sao Paulo State has great advantages in expanding cooperation with China. He said that he welcomes Chinese businesses to take part in the construction of railways, roads, ports and other infrastructures in Brazil.

On the evening of the same day, Hu Jintao also met with the representatives of the staff of Chinese Consulate General and Chinese-funded agencies in Sao Paulo State and the Chinese living in Brazil.