LatinNews Daily - 04 July 2023

* The Dominican Republic and China have held the first meeting of a mixed committee on economic, trade and investment cooperation which included discussion of both countries’ economic situations, bilateral trade, possible investment opportunities and priority cooperation projects. The meeting was led by the Dominican Republic’s foreign minister, Roberto Álvarez, and economy, planning and development minister, Pável Isa, as well as China’s deputy trade minister, Wang Shouwen. According to a Dominican foreign ministry (Mirex) press release, the Dominican government presented various initiatives to boost the presence of Dominican agricultural products in China and revise key sectors of interest for both parties, such as energy, infrastructure, tourism, agro-industry, technology, and sustainable development. The two countries forged relations in May 2018 after the Dominican Republic severed ties with Taiwan. According to a 27 April report by China’s state-run news channel CGTN, since ties were established, the two countries have signed over 20 agreements spanning various sectors such as construction under China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI), which enables cooperation on major infrastructure projects, the economy, trade, agriculture, culture, education and tourism, with accumulated investment of over US$200m. It cites China’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic Chen Luning as saying that since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the volume of bilateral trade has increased by 112% and was worth over US$4.8bn in 2022, while in the first quarter of 2023, the volume of bilateral trade was up 39.3% year-on-year.