LatinNews Daily - 11 September 2023

* Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has been on an official visit to China since 8 September, beginning his trip in the city of Shenzhen where he met Huang Kunming, the secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Conversations in Shenzhen, a global technology manufacturing hub, seem to have centred around Venezuela’s ambitions of boosting growth via a growing number of special economic zones (SEZs). A memorandum of understanding was signed during the visit by the regulator of Venezuela’s SEZs and the SEZ research centre at the University of Shenzhen on cooperation in the development and modernisation of SEZs. Maduro arrived in Shanghai on 10 September for the second stop of his visit, tweeting that “we are strengthening strategic alliances in economic matters and technology”. In Shanghai he met with Brazil’s former president Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), the president of the New Development Bank set up by the Brics group of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa); Maduro tweeted that “Venezuela hopes to establish a virtuous relationship with the Brics bank, and sooner rather than later be part of this great family”. Maduro’s visit to China is expected to continue until 13 September, although no details have been released on his planned activities.