Latin American can benefit greatly by studying the path to China's growth and development, according to Milton Reyes, an Ecuadorian researcher at the Latin America - Asia Pacific Observatory.

During an interview with Xinhua last Thursday, Reyes described China's growth as "interesting." He noted that the world's second-largest economy has maintained its long-term prosperity without being tied to a sole vision for economic growth.

Like Us on Facebook

According to Reyes, Latin American countries have a great vision, but political and cultural matters inhibit their growth.

"These purist visions have not allowed for a very flexible development and have not allowed Latin America economies to adapt easily to the global context," he noted. "This background means that Latin America must be careful when exploring which strategies to follow."

This, Reyes believes, might be an advantage for Latin American countries because rather than immediately diving into new structural reforms, they instead develop gradual structures that go hand-in-hand with their interest.

Reyes welcomed the idea of Latin American countries working closely with China to build an in-depth understanding in certain key areas.

"We could go beyond that and set up a joint production between national companies in order to create strategic alliances and joint industrial policies," he said. "This could generate shared benefits which could be very interesting in the region.

He noted that China is a great source of financing with the most favorable terms of engagement.

"When a country seeks to focus on its internal growth, the main bottleneck can often be finding financing. In this case Chinese financing has been useful for solving these problems and avoiding the trap of enacting policies that benefit neither our interest nor reality," he said.  

He ended the interview by acknowledging China's partnership with Latin America countries while allowing the countries to stick to their cultural beliefs and governing system.

Tagschina, Latin America, LAC-ASIA Observatory