A participant delivers a keynote speech of Upgrading China-LAC Trade and Investment Flows during the 8th China-LAC Business Summit in Changsha, Hunan province on Sept 12. Bai Yu / Xinhua

China and Latin American and Caribbean countries should use their complementary advantages and establish a stable, enduring and mutually beneficial partnership in economy, trade and investment, said Jiang Zengwei, chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, at the 8th China Business Summit-Latin America & Caribbean on Sept 12-13 in Changsha, capital of China's Hunan province.

"These have become the common vision that the public sectors and business circles of both sides are working for," said Jiang.

The summit, which aimed to beat its record of 500 Americans and 800 Chinese participants, is organized each year by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The event featured three Latin American ministers who presented their countries' opportunities for Chinese investment.

More than 600 entrepreneurs attended the meetings. Since its first edition in 2007, in Santiago, Chile, the number of participants reached more than double the figure of last year's summit in San Jose, Costa Rica.

This year's summit came with a slogan that summarized the challenges for trade and bilateral investment facing both regions: "From quantity to quality: a potential larger cooperation, convergence of more interests".

Business relations between the two blocs, which could be described as a kind of mutual discovery in recent years, have made China the largest trading partner of countries like Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, and the second, after the United States.

Trade between the Asian giant and Latin America has exploded in the last 15 years, from $12 billion in 2000 to $261 billion in 2013. According to the IDB, China's foreign direct investment in Latin America, in the decade between 2002 and 2012, totaled $917 million, while at least 98 Latin America and Caribbean companies were operating in China.