CRI听力:Peruvian entrepreneurs hope to enhance cooperation with China

While most of the focus this weekend will be on the APEC leaders, small- and medium-sized companies in Peru are representing themselves in Lima, hoping to drum-up new opportunities through the sessions.

Rafael Gamarra, partner of Bquate, a digital music company, says his firm has global ambitions, which include China.

"APEC has a very good forum for countries to understand where are the other countries right now. We are looking forward to the internationalization of our operations. Since we provided digital services, it's very easy for us to go there. We are currently looking forward to expand our operations creating new branches in Asia Pacific. Not just Latin America, we are also planning to expand to China."

Peruvian companies already have a leg-up on the competition.

A China-Peru Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 2010.

Since its signing, bilateral trade has remained on an upward trend, hitting nearly 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

China has been Peru's largest trading partner, export market and source of imports for years.

Peru remains China's largest destination in Latin America for Chinese investment.

Chinese investments in Peru are wide-ranging, covering areas including mining, hydrocarbons, infrastructure, financial services and more.

Alfonso Bustamante, president of the APEC CEO summit, says he hopes Xi Jinping's time in Peru will help bolster the already-dynamic trade environment.

"China, as one of the main trade partners and investing countries, is very important to Peru. We also hope that the trade with China will be more and more important. We hope President Xi Jinping can know more of Peru and its openness. Not just the traditional industries that China has invested such as mining industry, China could pay attention to the industry of commercial and agricultural product export."

Beyond money, Peru is also the largest destination in Latin America for Chinese people.

Known locally as "tusan," which is thought to be derived from "Taishan," a fishing village in Guangdong, people of Chinese ancestry now make up roughly 5-percent of the population of Peru.