Global Courant
Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
With the appointment of Sir Salvador Moncada as Honduran ambassador in Peking (Beijing) and the opening of the embassy of Chinese in Tegucigalpa both countries seal diplomatic relations and open the doors to establish an economic and commercial association.
Two months after signing the joint communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Chinese government today officially celebrates the opening of its embassy in Tegucigalpa, a few days after the president Xiomara Castro announced that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had given his approval to Moncada, a Honduran scientist and member of the Royal London Society for the Advancement of Natural Science.
Chinese diplomats and Honduran authorities are scheduled to hold the inaugural ceremony at a hotel in Tegucigalpa, where they will announce the location of the headquarters.
With the concept of being a “glorious mission”, according to what he told the media, Yu Boadviser for Latin American affairs of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arrived in Tegucigalpa on April 4 to open the headquarters of the diplomatic delegation in this country and since then to this day, he has held meetings with government officials, including Laura Suazo , minister of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG), Foreign Minister Enrique Reina and presidential adviser Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
$5,516
Millions are the purchases of merchandise made by Honduras from China in the last three years. Honduras sold him $49.4 million.
Under the principle of “one China”, the government of the Asian power, as stated by Bo, welcomes Honduras to the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century and the Economic Belt of the Silk Road to which more than 150 countries have adhered to.
The new Silk Road, a project whose name alludes to a network of trade routes opened by China many centuries ago, is the new bet of that Asian country to logistically interconnect partner markets to facilitate trade.
Some countries that have joined this project have received financing from China to build ports, airports, install trains and develop industrial centers.
The Chinese government presented the project to the world in 2013 and since then it has managed to capitalize on the sympathy of dozens of countries, mainly those in the developing world in Africa and Latin America. With the new Silk Road, China has strengthened itself geopolitically before the United States with the establishment of diplomatic relations with more countries, including Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras in Central America.
$244
million are the purchases of merchandise made by Honduras to Taiwan in the last three years. Honduras sold him $294.7 million.
The installation of both diplomatic delegations is produced in the midst of the first wave of the signing of agreements and strategic alliances between government entities and Chinese companies that will develop projects in Honduras, such as Hondutel and Huawei; China Harbor Engineering Company (Chec) and the National Port Company.
China, according to reports from the ENP, after signing a memorandum of understanding, will build bridges over the Alvarado Lagoon in Puerto Cortés, modernize the port of San Lorenzo, Valle, and conclude the dry canal, which connects the Pacific with the Atlantic .
Carlos Bueso, managing minister of the ENP, told the media that this signing “is one of the first results of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China” and which “will help the development of the Honduran port system.”
In these days (from June 1 to June 12) representatives of nine Honduran companies from the aquaculture, coffee, beverages and agri-food sectors will search for importers in China and will participate in a trade fair.
Helui Castillo, trade policy manager of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (Cohep), informed LA PRENSA newspaper that the companies Exporter, Empacadora Litoral, Pacific Fresh Export, Riqueza Marina, Oriental Seafood, Conexh, Granjas Marinas, Distributor Istmania and Agrolíbano.
The businessmen toured different cities with Honduran government authorities, the Vice Minister of Economic Development, Melvin Redondo, an expert on free trade agreements, and Carlos Pacheco, SAG’s Technical Director of Plant Health.
Until 2023, Honduras had not exploited the opportunities of the Chinese market since the exporters were targeting Taiwan, a country to which they sold $120.5 million in products in 2022, according to figures from the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH), while only $10.6 million was sold to the Asian power. .
For Honduras, after the United States, with $5,194.3 million in 2022, China is the second supplier of merchandise. Last year it imported $2,099 million. That amount is equivalent to 71% of the purchases made to Asia (India, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan), $2,969 million.
