Li pledges $ 30b industrial fund for Latin America

Premier Li Keqiang addresses a business summit between China and Brazil in Brasilia, capital of the Latin American country on May 19.[Photo/english.gov.cn]

"I believe that the recovery of the world economy lies in global industrial cooperation," Li said. "A deep restructuring of the global economy will not be made possible with merely the quantitative easing policies without the push of the real economy. Industrialization and global industrial cooperation are the fundamental force of the world's economy.

"Latin America cannot always be an exporter of raw materials, like China can no longer be a global supplier of cheap products," Li said. Sino-Brazilian trade mushroomed from $6.5 billion in 2003 to $83.3 billion in 2012, and trade between China and Brazil reached $86.9 billion in 2014, about 3.3 percent lower year-over-year. Brazil exported goods worth $52 billion to China, 3.2 percent less than the previous year. It imported $35 billion from China, nearly 3.5 percent down.

Ignacio De Moraes Jr, manager of Nutriplus, a Brazilian company with an office in Shanghai, said he was encouraged by Li's address, and he believes Li's proposal to fund local infrastructure construction is "mature".

Jose Graca Lima, head of Asian affairs in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, told AFP that another generation of Chinese investment is under way. After the first wave involving trade in raw materials, the focus now is on heavy industry and infrastructure.