BEIJING, Jan. 9 -- Overseas experts, scholars and news media have positively commented on Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech delivered at the first ministerial meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The two-day first ministerial meeting of China-CELAC Forum concluded in Beijing on Friday.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the meeting on Thursday, Xi called on the two sides to seize new opportunities for cooperation while making proposals for the forum's future development.

In positively commenting on the meeting, overseas experts, scholars and news media generally expressed the belief that a new chapter for China-CELAC cooperation has been opened.

Mapping out the future course for building a broader and more flexible cooperation platform, President Xi's speech would mobilize all Latin American and Caribbean countries to integrate themselves into global common development via their cooperation with China, and would mark a new epoch for development of China-CELAC relations as well as the world economy, according to Severino Cabral, director at Brazil Institute of China and Asia Pacific Studies.

Marco Navas, an Ecuadoran expert on international issues, said that Xi's speech is "exciting" and sends a positive signal for advancing China-CELAC comprehensive cooperative partnership, noting that the door of "China opportunities" is being opened to the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The prospect of China-CELAC cooperation that Xi describes is promising, said the expert.

Xi's speech makes people fully confident in the prospects for China-Latin America cooperation and re-ignites the hope of the recession-clouded Latin American and Caribbean region, said Jorge Leon, an Ecuadoran social sciences researcher.

Xi's speech is very sincere and outlines a bright future for China-CELAC cooperation, said Venezuelan political analyst Alberto Aranguibel.

Venezuela's privately owned daily newspaper El Universal highlighted several proposals made by Xi at the meeting, including establishment of preferential credit lines, creation of a special fund for agricultural cooperation, provision of 6,000 scholarships and launch of an exchange program for young scientists.

The opening of the China-CELAC forum's first ministerial meeting less than half a year after the forum was established in July 2014 showed that both sides are eager to strengthen cooperation with each other, said Ulises Granados, a professor of international relations at Mexico's ITAM College.

The China-CELAC forum provides a new platform for China and CELAC countries to develop all-round cooperation, the professor said, expressing the hope that the forum will gradually become mature and bring about tangible results through pragmatic cooperation between the two sides.

The forum's ministerial meeting was not only a positive signal on the future of both sides, but also a step of "world reorganization", said Fernando Reyes, Chile's former ambassador to China.

The forum will create a new atmosphere for strategic political dialogue,in which both sides could push for the implementation of concrete plans, and provide new opportunities, said Reyes.

Francisco Barahonas, a political analyst and professor with the University of Costa Rica, pointed out that the holding of China-CELAC forum shows the CELAC is now pursuing cooperation with China as an integral group.

Through cooperation in trade and economy, China and Latin American countries can realize mutual benefits and win-win results, bring tangible job opportunities to CELAC members.

Ecuadorian news agency, Andes, released an article noting that the forum has provided an opportunity to forge a closer partnership between China and the CELAC. For CELAC members, the present is a historic moment for considering how to use the China-CELAC forum as an instrumental platform within the framework of the CELAC, to find a mutually beneficial path of cooperation with China.

The Venezuela News Agency said that Xi's speech has shown the sincerity and friendship of China. The "1+3+6" cooperation framework has heralded a new chapter in China-CELAC cooperation. And, the six strategic fields for cooperation and close people-to-people cooperation proposed by China are "specific" and "pragmatic", it said.