CHONGQING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) — The 14th China-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Business Summit kicked off in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday to further boost trade ties and corporate investment.

Political, business and academic representatives from China and the LAC region attended the conference online or offline.

Gao Yan, head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the LAC region is an important participant in the Belt and Road Initiative. In recent years, China-LAC economic and trade cooperation has entered the fast lane.

China is the second-largest trading partner of the LAC region, and the annual bilateral trade volume has exceeded 300 billion U.S. dollars for three consecutive years. The LAC region is also the second-largest destination for China’s outbound investment, with more than 2,700 Chinese-funded enterprises operating in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Chongqing Initiative by Business Communities of China and LAC Countries was released at the summit. Representatives of business communities from China and LAC countries held an in-depth exchange of views at the summit and reached a consensus on deepening areas of cooperation in a new development paradigm, including economic, trade, infrastructure and finance cooperation.

The initiative included jointly tackling the challenges of COVID-19, firmly embracing openness, continuing to promote infrastructure connectivity, effectively promoting financial integration, vigorously engaging in cooperation on innovation, and fully supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.