Chinese companies committed to poverty reduction in Colombia

"We believe that further investment will bring more market opportunities to Colombia and at the same time it can create more job opportunities for the local communities," Zhu said. "With our latest technology and devices at competitive prices, ZTE is attractive to Colombian operators and for the people that use our mobile devices."

Anna Jaguaribe, director of the Institute for Brazil-China Studies, said that with improved quality and advanced technology, Chinese products are no longer stereotyped as mass-produced low-cost goods of dubious quality, and can compete on par with Western brands.

"This competition can benefit consumers by pushing prices down, " Jaguaribe said.

In addition to better quality and cheaper prices, the competition also generates more advanced technologies.

Huawei, another Chinese telecoms giant, also provides catered services and products to the Colombian market, benefiting the development of remote areas.

The company worked together with a local fund to provide 1,800 tablet computers to schools in remote areas, and developed online courses for students of those schools in cooperation with local telecoms operators and educational software developers, according to Liu Song, a manager at Huawei's Colombian branch.

With the help of this project, which connects students in remote areas with online educational resources, local operators bought around 250,000 tablet computers from Huawei for the market in remote areas.

Meanwhile, in order to provide better mobile Internet access to better connect people, both ZTE and Huawei are working hard with 5G technology, which will provide more rapid connectivity in mobile and business aspects.

"Better connecting with the world means more opportunities for everyone, especially those who used to lack access to the outside world. We hope our technology and products can help make a difference to the people in need. We are businessmen, but we shoulder our social responsibilities," Liu said.