Premier Li and Colombian president meet the press

Premier Li Keqiang and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos attend a press conference in Bogota, capital of Colombia, May 21, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

"China attaches great importance to the cultural exchanges and mutual understanding with Colombia," the premier said.

"We stand ready to closely cooperate with Colombia in areas including culture, education, science and technology, tourism and sports to expand non-governmental exchanges," he said.

For his part, Santos said that he believes Li's current visit will become a landmark in the development of the Colombia-China bilateral relations.

Colombia welcomes Chinese side's active participation in the infrastructure construction including highways, subways, airports and ports and construction of the economic development zone in the country, he said.

The president said that the two sides should seek cooperation in production capacity, equipment manufacturing and agriculture, enhance financial cooperation and expand tourism cooperation.

The two countries also reached a consensus to launch a feasibility study on the China-Colombia bilateral free trade agreement and discuss the pact to avoid double taxation.

After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of a series of bilateral cooperation deals in areas including trade, production capacity, infrastructure construction, culture, education, science and technology, agriculture and finance. The two governments also issued a joint declaration after the talks.

Li arrived in Bogota on Thursday for an official visit after his trip to Brazil, the first leg of his four-nation Latin America tour which will also take him to Peru and Chile.

His visit comes about four months after the first ministerial meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Beijing, where China and Latin American countries agreed to increase their trade to 500 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. China also pledged to bring its accumulative investment in the region to 250 billion dollars by then.