On Tuesday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil arrived in Beijing for a four-day official visit to China.
RELATED:
“We have arrived in the People's Republic of China to continue the work undertaken by President Nicolas Maduro in the consolidation of the "all-weather" strategic alliance between China and Venezuela. We will be carrying out a broad agenda of evaluation and monitoring of the agreements that pursue the prosperity of our peoples,” he said.
The Venezuelan diplomat's visit is also related to the celebration of the 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Venezuela on June 28, a date on which the progress of the agreements signed in the 17th Joint High Leve Commission will be evaluated.
In recent years, the strengthening of Sino-Venezuelan relations has intensified the visits of senior officials from both countries to follow up on various signed agreements.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Chinese trade representative Wang Shouwen, for example, recently signed the Reciprocal Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.
On May 13, President Nicolas Maduro also signed the Law Approving Air Services between Venezuela and China, in order to promote tourism.
The efforts made by the Venezuelan government have generated enthusiastic responses from the business sector. In the previous week, the Venezuelan National Council of Commerce and Services (Consecomercio) approved the creation of a new services export commission.
The proposal for this commission was presented by the president of the Venezuelan Association of Exporters (AVEX), Ramon Goyo, who said his country must reform some laws on tax and customs matters, in order to adapt to global trends of export services.
"There is high potential in the tourism sector, in digital services such as distance education and health, and in air, sea, and land transportation companies," he said.
On May 22, Venezuelan Vice President Rodriguez said that her country is laying the foundations to boost international trade.
Alliances with China will allow Venezuela to achieve substantial growth in the export of fish and seafood, President Maduro pointed out, noting that Venezuela experienced a 2 percent growth in exports from the fishing sector during the first four months of the year.