China is willing to integrate its strengths in advanced industries to meet Costa Rica’s demand to upgrade transportation and infrastructure, Premier Li Keqiang said at a meeting with visiting Costa Rica President in Beijing on Jan 8.

“China’s relations with Costa Rica have developed rapidly, although the two sides established their diplomatic ties only recently,” Li said.

[Photo by Li Tao/Xinhua]

As one of the few countries that have signed a free trade deal with China, Costa Rica should make full use of the agreement to deepen mutual investment, Li said at the meeting.

Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solis, on a seven-day visit to China, is co-chairing the ongoing ministerial meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Beijing.

The co-chairing of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States has given Costa Rica the opportunity to extensively interact with Chinese business leaders, as the world’s second-largest economy will surpass the US to become Latin America’s top trading partner by 2030, Solis said.

Solis also visited several cultural attractions in Beijing, which experts said could deepen mutual understanding of the two countries.

On Jan 9, Solis is scheduled to travel to coastal city Tianjin by bullet train, where he will visit Dongjiang bonded port, one of the areas due to become the country’s latest free trade zones later this year.

Solis said Costa Rica has put the relations with China at the top of its diplomatic agenda since the two countries established diplomatic ties seven years ago. “Cooperation has developed in many sectors,” he said.

It was the Costa Rican president’s first official visit to China following his election last year.