A senior business official from the Dominican Republic said that his country has welcomed Chinese investment in infrastructure and energy sector.

Isidoro Santana, Minister of Economy, Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic made the remarks as he was attending a trade and investment opportunity seminar for the Dominican Republic, hosted by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in Beijing on June 11.

“We admire the economic progress that China has achieved in the past decades. Our government and business community are willing to foster cooperation with China in all fields by favor of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries last month. Our country’s economy has maintained high-speed growth, especially in the fields of infrastructure, finance, mining, energy and tourism. We warmly welcome Chinese companies to invest in our economy,” added Isidoro.

Isidoro said, the good geographical location and free trade agreements with 48 countries are favorable for Chinese companies to get market access to Europe and North America through the Dominican Republic. He also introduced some key projects for Chinese investors, such as Manzanillo port, Samana and Santo Domingo tourist ports, the Atlantic super highway, a thermal power station, etc.

Rosa Ng Baez, representative of the commercial development office of the Dominican Republic in China praised CCPIT’s contribution in promoting the business exchanges between the two countries before the establishment of diplomatic ties. She said, many Chinese companies have successfully got access to the Dominican market through CCPIT business platform.

“CCPIT received numerous Dominican business delegations recently and we believe more cooperation projects could be matched,” added Rosa.

Vice Chairman of CCPIT Chen Zhou noted, the establishment of diplomatic ties opened a new chapter for the development of both countries. Chen hailed the broad outlook in the cooperation in infrastructure construction, tourism industry and agriculture. CCPIT is willing to host more exhibitions, business and investment policy briefings and business match-making meetings with relevant Dominican agencies so as to boost bilateral ties and bring benefits for enterprises of both sides.

A total of 140 Chinese companies from more than 20 industries including finance, agriculture, energy, mining, electronics, light textile, infrastructure, e-commerce, tourism and logistics attended the seminar.