In a press reléase, the Panamanian foreign ministry referred the evaluation took place during the meeting between President Juan Carlos Varela and the person in charge of this issue inside the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Asian country, who visits the isthmus as part of the celebrations of the Chinese New Year.

During the meeting, Varela and Qiu extolled the quick advance of the bilateral agenda, which includes the signing of 23 agreements in trade, the economy, tourism, maritime and cooperation, among otjer sectors, since the establishment of diplomatic relations in June, 2017.

To this regard, both gave details on the visits that next March and April, the Panamanian ministers of Tourism, Gustavo Him, and of Agricultural Development, Eduardo Enrique Carles, respectively.

The letter of the Panama Foreign Ministry refers that Him will travel to China to participate in the International Tourism Fair of Guangzhou, and thus promote the status of ‘Approved Tourism Destination’ by China and the flexibilization of visas, in order to promote the entrance of Chinese tourists to the Central American nation.

For its part, the minister of Agriculture will meet with its homologue and phytosanitary authorities to increase exports of Panamanian products to that country.

Varela thanked Qij having selected a Panamanian for the prize Brightness of China’ to the most relevant personalities of the year 2017, which recognizes the Chinese that live abroad for their great contribution to the spread of that nation’s culture throughout the world.

Panama and China established diplomatic relations on June 12, 2017 and since then several business and high-level government delegations, among them foreign minister Wang Yi, visited Panama in order to go forward in the economic, trade and investment sectors.

According to sources of the Chinese embassy in this city, bilateral trade went up to 6.3 billion dollars at the end of 2016, making Panama the main trading partner of that country in Central America.