On the morning of May 26 local time, Premier Li Keqiang, together with President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, attended the opening ceremony of Economic and Trade Seminar marking 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-Chile diplomatic relations and the 7th Meeting of China-Chile Business Council at the hotel where he stayed in Santiago. Both leaders also delivered a speech respectively.

Li Keqiang said in his speech that China and Chile enjoy profound traditional friendship. The bilateral relations have been standing at the forefront of the relations between China and Latin American nations and the bilateral cooperation has created multiple "firsts". This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-Chile diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the free trade agreement. It is hoped that both sides could consolidate mutual trust, deepen cooperation and take infrastructure construction as a foothold in strengthening production capacity cooperation, namely industrial and investment cooperation. The two countries should promote cooperation in equipment manufacturing, focus on development of the real economy, jointly respond to the downward pressure of economy and promote world economic recovery.

Li Keqiang pointed out that China-Chile free trade arrangement, as an agreement between the world's largest developing country and a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, means that the two economies are highly complementary in their advantages. We should hold high the banner of free trade and resolutely oppose protectionism. China is committed to maintaining the current reasonable and effective mechanisms and rules of international economics and trade, and stands ready to constructively participate in and promote relevant reforms so as to improve the multilateral trading system and drive the two

"wheels" of liberalization and facilitation of bilateral and regional trade.

Li Keqiang stressed that China is willing to, together with Chile, constantly expand bilateral trade, fully unlock the free-trade dividends and continue to upgrade the China-Chile free trade area. China is ready to participate in Chile's infrastructure construction in different ways such as public–private partnership (PPP), franchising and turnkey projects, and enhance financial cooperation by taking the signing of a currency swap agreement between the two countries and an agreement for China to set up the first RMB clearing bank of Latin America in Santiago as opportunity, so as to build financial service platform and provide strong support for China-Latin America cooperation in production capacity. The two nations should deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, share experience in social governance, strengthen exchanges on disaster monitoring, early warning and relief of earthquake, tsunami and other disasters, and intensify cooperation in forestry, rare species, water resources and other issues concerning ecological protection, so as to jointly contribute to the protection of the eco-environment and biodiversity in Latin America in the bilateral cooperation and development.

Li Keqiang at last expressed his hope that the business circles of both countries could seize opportunities and join efforts to forge the "iron and steel" of China-Chile economic cooperation and exchanges, so as to make greater contribution to the economic development in China, Latin America and the world at large.

Michelle Bachelet said in her speech that Chile and China have witnessed constant development in their relations and increasingly closer bilateral exchanges and cooperation since the establishment of the diplomatic relations 45 years ago. Chile is willing to work with China to launch the upgrading process of the bilateral free trade agreement, expand mutual investment and strengthen cooperation in infrastructure construction, energy and other areas by taking full advantage of the agreement on the avoidance of double taxation, deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and expand financial cooperation and promote the internationalization of RMB in Latin America, so as to jointly lift the bilateral relations to a new high and strive for more "firsts".

Over 450 participants, including the personages from the business circles of both China and Chile as well as foreign diplomatic envoys in Chile, responded to the speeches delivered by the leaders of the two nations with prolonged and warm applause.