Your Excellency Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, the State President of the Republic of Malawi

Honorable Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers present,

Honorable Members of the National Assembly present,

Mr. Bright Msaka, the Chief Secretary

and Senior Government Officials,

Your Excellency the Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Mr. Tang Jun, Representative of the Board Chairman of Shanghai Construction Group, the Chinese Contractor for the Project,

Dear Press Friends,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. Today, I am very delighted and feeling great honor to join His Excellency Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi here to lay the Foundation Stone for the Construction of the International Conference Center and the Business Hotel.

First of all, please allow me to extend, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, our warm and sincere congratulations to H.E. President of Malawi, the Malawian government and people for the ground breaking of the project.

Indeed, this project is the brainchild of H.E. President Mutharika. It is this president, His Excellency who appealed to China to help Malawi build such a grand project in the capital Lilongwe and gave us his personal concerns and guidance in the process of preparing the project, including planning and finalizing the design schemes.

This project is also a good example of achieving His Excellency’s great vision of transforming Malawi from poverty to prosperity. Once completed, it will enable Malawi to host international or regional conferences and summits, which will further facilitate Malawi to promote herself to the world, boost the tourism industry of Malawi, so as to create more jobs and revenue and promote the national development of Malawi.

This project is another important fruit of the friendly relationship between China and Malawi, and another landmark project in Malawi supported by the Chinese government after the Parliamentary Building Complex and the Karonga-Chitipa Road. The whole project, including 20 presidential villas will be completed and handed over to the Malawian side in 30 months from now on.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is known to us all that nowadays, the whole world are still suffering from the unprecedented global financial crisis. At such a difficult time, China kept all our commitments to Malawi and has no hesitate to deliver the project one by one, including such a huge project. And I am happy to say that some more projects funded and granted by the Chinese government will be proceeded.

Indeed, China and Malawi are new friends and new partners. The diplomatic relations between our two countries was just less than two years old. But I am very proud to see that with the personal concern and guidance by the heads of states and joint efforts of both sides, the relations between our two countries has developed rapidly and become so fruitful. China has become an important development partner of Malawi.

The Parliamentary Building Complex is about to be completed and will be handed over to the Malawian side next May for the new parliament session. The Phase I of 13 kilometers of the Karonga-Chitipa Road, including two major bridges has been completed and opened to public traffic already, and the Phase II of 88 kilometers of the Road has been under busy construction. The whole road of 101 km is expected to be completed before the end of June, 2011. These two projects granted by China will cost more than US$ 100 million, US$ 20 million more than our commitment. But we are very proud to see that the dream of the road of the Malawian people for long will come true soon.

Within 3 years, the Parliamentary Building Complex, the International Conference Centre together with a Business Hotel and the National Stadium will stand upright in Lilongwe. And China is also ready to provide concessional loans to help Malawi build the University of Science and Technology in the South.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The economic and trade cooperation between China and Malawi has grown remarkably. In 2007, before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malawi, the export volume from Malawi to China was less than 1 million US dollars. But in 2008, 2850 metric ton tobacco with total value of 18.58 million US dollar from Malawi was exported to China. This year, China has bought another 2985 metric ton tobacco worth 20 million US dollars. From January to September this year, the export volume from Malawi to China had reached US$ 16.29 million, which had increased 317 % compared to the same period of last year and 16 times more than that of 2007. China has unilaterally granted a Special Preferential Tariff Treatment to 466 kinds of products originally produced in Malawi to China, which means those products will access to the Chinese market without tariff. I am sure that more investments from China will come to Malawi and more products from Malawi including tobacco, tea and coffee will access to the vast Chinese markets.

China’s investment in Malawi has grown significantly. According to the statistics of Malawi, China has become the largest foreign investor in Malawi with total investment amount of 28.7 million US dollars in the first half of this year, which accounted for 55% of Foreign Direct Investment in Malawi in the same period. One of the most important investment projects is the Balaka Cotton Growing and Processing Project, which is expected to invest 25 million US dollars and help Malawian government save and earn millions of US$ of foreign reserve. This year, the Chinese investor has purchased 15,000 metric ton cotton, and half of them has already been processed and all will be exported to China. By now, the project has created 1300 regular and casual jobs for the local people.

The people-to-people exchanges have been carried out vigorously. In the past two years, China has provided 57 governmental scholarships to Malawian students. Over 250 officials, professional personnel from various fields of Malawi have been invited to China for seminars or training programs. Now, 17 Chinese doctors are serving Malawian people in Kamuzu Central Hospital and Mzuzu Central Hospital respectively.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We will never forget that it is the wise and timely decision made by H.E. President Mutharika to established diplomatic relationship between the Republic of Malawi and the People’s Republic of China, which opened the gate for the exchanges of our two peoples and our mutually beneficial cooperation, and make all these achievements possible to benefit our two peoples.

Both China and Malawi belong to the developing countries, and are faced with common task of national development. We not only share a lot of common languages, but also have a lot of common interest in our bilateral relations and the international affairs as well. The cooperation between our two countries has strong complementarities and huge potentials. I am full of confidence that with our joint efforts and close cooperation, the bilateral relations between our countries will bear more fruits to benefit our two peoples.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The contractor for this project called Shanghai Construction Group is one of the best construction corporations in China and has abundant experiences and advanced technologies. Many skyscrapers and bridges in Shanghai and China as well were built by this corporation. I have no doubt about their capabilities and accountabilities. But on this occasion, I would like to challenge the Chinese contractor to honor the contracts signed with the governments of China and Malawi and the commitments to practicing partnership with Malawian side and presenting a high-quality building to the Malawian people in due time, and make it stand as the symbol of friendship between our two countries and two peoples.

I would also like to call on the Malawian government and people to give the Chinese contractor full understanding and supports so as for them to proceed the project smoothly and complete it on time.

To my conclusion, I would like to ensure Your Excellency that as a sincere friend and a reliable development partner of Malawi, China will further strengthen our substantial cooperation with Malawi, join your efforts to fight against poverty for prosperity for the Malawian peoples, and further promote our friendly relationship and win-win cooperation to a new height.

I wish the construction of this grand project a complete success.

I thank you all.