China has become a "privileged partner of Latin America," and the region needs to define a joint strategy to develop its ties with China, an official of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Wednesday.

The "post- (economic) crisis will find a bigger and more important China than the one it has been in the world economy," said Osvaldo Rosales, ECLAC's director for international trade and integration.

Citing the World Trade Organization's report on Tuesday that China had displaced Germany in the first half of 2009 as a leading exporter, Rosales observed that "this has been reflected in its (China's) growing relative presence in the world's trade, mainly in Latin America."

"The numbers of destinations and exporters show that China has become a privileged partner of Latin America," Rosales told Xinhua in an interview.

This was because the Chinese government had "already defined the strategy for Latin America in its white book," Rosales explained, adding that the region needed to do the same.

Regarding bilateral trade relations, Rosales worried about Latin America's export structure, which focused on a few products and natural resources. He called for a diversification of the export basket.

"Latin America is in some ways linked with China, the world economy's engine of the 21st century, but it is doing that with an export structure from the 20th century," Rosales observed.

He proposed that Latin America attract more Chinese investment in fields such as infrastructure, energy and telecommunications.

Rosales added that it would be viable to have more Chinese investment if there were more indications of a large unified market with common norms in the region.

Touching on Latin America's advantages, Rosales said the region had plenty of mining, agricultural, fishing and forest resources, not to mention experienced human resources.

"From my point of view, I think establishing joint ventures in different fields could be attractive for China," Rosales concluded.

Rosales also believed that "ties with China could mean an additional boost for the regional integration in Latin America."

Perhaps in the future, China could join Japan and South Korea in becoming an ECLAC member, he proposed.