On May 8, the South American Branch of the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Center for Technology Exchange in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone was established. Photo courtesy of Pudong New Area Market Supervision Bureau

On May 8, 2024, Beijing time, the South American Branch of the Belt and Road International Cooperation Center for Technology Exchange in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was established in Brazil.

Latin America is a natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. So far, 22 of the 26 countries in the region have signed memorandums of understanding with China to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative. Under the guidance of the Belt and Road Initiative, China and Latin America and the Caribbean have achieved fruitful results in cooperation in various fields, with the annual bilateral trade in goods reaching US$500 billion. In order to implement the mission of "Vision and Action to Jointly Promote the Construction of the Belt and Road Initiative in Certification and Accreditation Services", relying on the quality certification technical service network of the China Quality Certification Center in Latin America, Shanghai Pudong has set up the fifth overseas branch of the "Belt and Road" Technical Cooperation International Exchange Center of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in South America.

Liu Jiang, director of the China Quality Certification Center, said that the establishment of the South American branch will promote China's technical service institutions to strengthen quality and technical cooperation with official technical organizations such as COBEI, the Brazilian International Electrotechnical Commission Electronics, Lighting and Telecommunications Commission, the Chilean national standards body INN, and the Peruvian conformity assessment authority INACA, and promote the docking of technical standards and rules between China and Latin America. Inspection and testing and other technical and regulatory consulting and other aspects to provide an efficient, unified, convenient and smooth service platform for Chinese products exported to Latin American countries.

It is reported that with the support of the State Administration for Market Regulation, in 2018, the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Center for Technology Exchange in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was established in Pudong, Shanghai, establishing a convenient channel to connect the international certification and accreditation system, promoting international exchanges and cooperation, serving enterprises to eliminate international technical trade barriers, and helping Pudong and even national enterprises to better move towards the "Belt and Road". In 2019, the cooperation center set up the Sino-Saudi Arabia import and export commodity conformity assessment workstation and the Middle East branch center in Pudong to help Pudong enterprises realize a package of services of "one acceptance, one certification, and regional mutual recognition" for exporting Middle East products at their doorstep, which greatly saves costs. Subsequently, in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Cooperation Center set up Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia sub-centers in Singapore, Japan and Kazakhstan respectively.

Up to now, the cooperation center has issued more than 10,000 Saudi SASO certificates, helping thousands of enterprises to export their products to Saudi Arabia, involving more than a dozen categories such as electronic appliances, household appliances, auto parts, etc., assisting more than 300 enterprises to obtain the GCC certificate of the seven Gulf countries, and obtaining the results of the energy efficiency certification of lighting appliances by the Electricity Authority of Thailand, as well as Vietnam, Singapore and other target countries have been partially accepted by government departments, issued more than 1,500 PSE certificates, assisted more than 500 enterprises to export their products to Japan, and broadened the export channels of new energy vehicles, helping the number of vehicles exported from Pudong to Uzbekistan increase from more than 100 units in 2022 to more than 3,000 units in 2023.

After the establishment of the South America branch, Shanghai Pudong will accelerate the establishment of information sharing channels with inspection, testing and certification institutions in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru, so as to help enterprises in Shanghai and even the Yangtze River Delta region to better enter Latin America.