ML-Implode News - China Pledges $35 Billion to Latin America

With relatively little fanfare, China has taken over the inside lane of economic development in Latin America with an ambitious 10-year regional investment plan on the scale of the Marshall Plan. China's support for a $250 billion fund for largely infrastructure investments in Latin America was announced by President Xi Jinping at a summit meeting in Beijing last week of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which represents 33 countries. China has already pledged $35 billion for the fund, which will also require financial inputs from multilateral development banks and contributions from host countries. To coordinate this, CELAC and China will create a forum to design the partnership with the goal of unifying Latin America as a regional economy.
Beijing's aim is to double the level of trade between China and Latin America from the current level of $300 billion reached in 2014 when China become the second-largest market for Latin American exports, mainly commodities like petroleum, soybeans, iron, and copper. This trade is the basis for a mutual dependence that is evolving into cooperation in development investment. China has the capital to invest and wants to secure future supplies of food and energy as its society becomes more urbanized and consumers seek better quality products, such as wines and seafood from Chile and Peru or beef and poultry from Brazil. The possibilities are enormous if Latin America can achieve efficient, cost-competitive production, now hobbled by inadequate infrastructure in transportation and energy. The Chinese have advanced experience in railroad construction and are eager to become involved in new oil and gas fields in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela, all of which have received large financial advances from China in exchange for future oil.

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China Pledges $35 Billion to Latin America