On January 14, the first round of Sino-Chilean FTA talks on investment was launched in Santiago, the capital of Chile.

During the negotiations, the two sides briefed each other on the situation of their own investment management system as well as the bilateral and multilateral investment agreements each of them had signed, and exchanged in-depth views on the basic framework and main contents of the investment text. The two sides hoped that, the agreement on investment shall be reached as early as possible on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, as well as pragmatic and effective discussions, and shall further deepen the cooperation between the two countries on investment.

The Sino-Chile FTA was signed in November 2005, with its main contents including trade in goods and cooperation. And since the agreement was implemented in October 2006, China and Chile’s bilateral trade has been growing rapidly, in the first and second year of the implementation of the agreement, the bilateral trade volume had reached USD13.2 billion and USD17.6 billion, respectively, up 59% and 33% year on year, respectively. In April 2008, China and Chile signed the Supplementary Agreement on Sino-Chile FTA on Trade in Services, which is expected to go into effect in the first half of this year upon their domestic ratification procedures completed.