MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean bank opens first office in Beijing

The Bank of Chile became the first South American private finance institution to open an office in Beijing in the framework of the Chile/China free trade agreement.

"It's the culmination of a dream of a group of people who have been working on the project for over two years", said Bank of Chile's Vice-president Andronico Luksic. "This is the beginning of a process and bridge-head for cooperation between two countries that don't fear globalization and are committed to creating wealth for our peoples", said Luksic.

Chile's Central Bank president Vittorio Corbo was present at the inauguration ceremony Thursday in Beijing and was later invited to a conference in Beijing University where he underlined that Chile and China "in spite of their different sizes, have discovered world integration and have in the last twenty years established records in poverty reduction".

China was represented by International Trade Promotion Council vice-president Yu Ping and the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Trade Xu Yingzhen.

"Our countries are very friendly: political relations and trade cooperation has significantly increased in the last few years but business potential is still enormous besides the fact both communities are interested in advancing which ensures the success of the banking office in Beijing".

Xu Yingzhen pointed out that "during the recent visit to Chile of Wu Bangguo, (president of China's Nacional Popular Assembly) together with President Bachelet they announced the launching of the free trade agreement and the beginning of negotiations on services and investments".