Media: Your Excellency, as we will witness the 2nd anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Malawi and the People’s Republic of China, could you make a general comment on the development of Malawi-China relations in the past two years?

Amb. Lin Songtian: Since the diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Malawi on December 28, 2007, with the concern and guidance from the heads of state and joint efforts of both sides, the China-Malawi relations have developed steadily and rapidly, and has gone from nowhere to somewhere, featuring frequent high-level exchanges, fruitful and vigorous cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, education and human resources, culture, health, sports and media, etc..

On December 12, 2009, H.E. President Mutharika made his remarks on the ground-breaking ceremony of the International Conference Center and Business Hotel Project, calling China as a great friend to Malawi, a friend indeed and an important development partner of Malawi. I think this is the best comment for the development of China-Malawi relations in the past two years.

As the first Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Malawi, I am very satisfied with such a rapid and fruitful development of China-Malawi relations. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciations to H.E. Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, the State President of Malawi for his wise and resolute decision to normalize the diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, which opened the gate for the mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation between our two countries. I also wish to express my sincere appreciations to the Malawian government and people for their understanding and close cooperation.

Meida: Just now, you mentioned that high-level exchanges between Malawi and China have been frequent. Could you make a detail introduction?

Amb. Lin: I think the high-level exchanges between our two countries are very key to develop our bilateral relations and cooperation. Soon after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malawi, at the invitation of H.E. Mr. Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China, H.E. President Mutharika paid a state visit to China, which was the first time that the head of state of Malawi had ever visited China. During the visit, the two leaders had profound discussions and reached broad consensus on and made a master plan for the development of China-Malawi relations.

Since then on, 11 cabinet ministers and 5 deputy ministers of Malawi and the commander of Malawi Denfence Force have visited China. Last June, Hon. Mr. Lovemore Munlo, Chief Justice of Malawi led a justice delegation to visit China, which has launched the cooperation and exchanges between our two countries in the field of justice. By now, 435 government officials, professional personnel from different fields of Malawi have been invited to China either for official visit or training programs.

From the Chinese side, last January, H.E. Mr. Yang Jiechi, Minister of Foreign Affairs paid an official visit to Malawi, to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between China and Malawi. Besides, H.E. Mr. Zhai Jun, representative of H.E. President Hu Jintao and Assistant Foreign Minister, H.E. Mr. Gao Hucheng, Deputy Minister of Commerce, H.E. Mr. Li Jinjun, Deputy Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China and Major General Mr. Qian Lihua, Chief of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense have visited Malawi respectively.

The frequent high-level exchanges have further facilitated the mutual understanding and friendship, consolidated and deepened the mutual political trust between our two countries and two peoples.

Meida: You always say that the Malawi-China relations should benefit the peoples of our two countries. Could you explain how the Malawian people benefit from this relationship?

Amb. Lin: This is a good question. In the past two years, the China-Malawi relations have yielded fruitful results, which are tangible and visible, and have substantially benefited the people of Malawi.

First, China has kept its promises to help Malawi build a series of landmark projects. The Parliamentary Building Complex is about to be completed and will be handed over to the Malawian side this 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 traffic, the whole road of 101 kilometers is scheduled to be finished before the end June, 2011. These two projects will cost over US$ 100 million grant of the Chinese government. The ground-breaking ceremony of the International Conference Center and Business Hotel Project was held on December 12, 2009. The whole project, including 20 presidential villas, will cost US$ 90 million Chinese government concessional loans. The project, which will be completed in 30 months, will enable Malawi to host international conferences and summits, further promote the image of Malawi and facilitate its economic development.

Besides, China will help Malawi to build a National Stadium in Lilongwe and the University of Science and Technology in the South through Chinese government concessional loans, which are already on agenda.

Second, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Malawi has grown significantly. In order to encourage Malawi’s export to China, China has unilaterally granted a Special Preferential Tariff Treatment to 466 kinds of products of Malawi, which means these products will enter into Chinese market without tariff.

In 2007, before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malawi, the total trade volume between China and Malawi was US$ 42.82 million, and the export volume from Malawi to China was only US$ 760 thousand. In 2008, the figures had increased to US$ 88 million and US$ 8 million respectively. From January to October,2009, the total trade volume between China and Malawi was US$ 69 million; and the export volume from Malawi to China had reached US$ 16 million, which was 21 times more than that of 2007. In the past two years, China has purchased 5835 metric ton tobacco from Malawi, with a total value of US$ 38.58 million.

Third, China’s investment in Malawi has grown noticeably. According to the statistics from the Malawi Investment Promotion Agency, in 2009, the total Chinese investment in Malawi was US$ 29.19 million, which was 20.5 times more than the US$ 1.42 million of 2007. One of the most important investment projects is the Balaka Cotton Growing and Processing Project, which is expected to invest US$ 25 million. Last year, the Chinese investor has purchased 17,000 metric ton cotton, and most of them has been processed and exported to China. By now, the project has created 1300 regular and temporary jobs for the local people and helped Malawi have US$ millions of foreign earning.

The facts above has proved that the friendly and cooperative relationship between China and Malawi is in line with the fundamental interest of our two countries and is beneficial to our two peoples.

Media: How about the cooperation in other fields?

Amb. Lin: The cooperation between China and Malawi in the fields of human resources development, education, health, youth, sports and media is fruitful, and the friendship between our two peoples has been deepened significantly.

In order to help Malawi strengthen human resources development and capacity building, in the past two years, China has provided 57 governmental scholarships to Malawian students, 294 government officials or professional personnel form various fields of Malawi have been invited to China for seminars or technical training programs.

Now, 17 Chinese doctors are serving Malawian people in Kamuzu Central Hospital and Mzuzu Central Hospital respectively, their high-standard services have been widely recognized by the patients and their local colleagues. China has invited two youth delegations of 9 persons from Malawi to visit China, and has sent 20 youth volunteers to Malawi. Last June, the Chinese Wushu delegation visited Malawi and offered three wonderful performances to the Malawian people. Now, four Malawian Wushu coaches are being trained in China. China has invited a total of 31 Malawian journalists to visit China. The China Central Television (CCTV) and Malawi Television (TVM) have signed a MOU on strengthening cooperation and exchanges between each other.

The friendship between our two peoples has been deepened. In 2008, when the Sichuan Province of China was hit by severe earthquakes, the Malawian people gave the Chinese people sincere sympathy and precious support. When the earthquakes happened recently in Karonga district of Malawi, the Chinese Embassy and Chinese community in Malawi quickly responded to the appeal of H.E. President Mutharika, and donated 5.02 million kwacha items and cash to the earthquake victims. I personally traveled to Karonga to visit the victims and handed over the donations to them. In addition to this, the Red Cross Society of China has decided to donate US$ 30,000 to the Malawi Red Cross Society for the earthquake relief. These actions have shown the profound brotherly and sisterly sentiments between our two peoples.

Media: How about the prospect of Malawi-China relations? What kind of measures China will take to further promote the development of Malawi-China relations?

Amb. Lin: As a sincere friend and a reliable development partner of Malawi, China has committed herself to helping Malawi in its efforts to achieve self-sustainable development. China will continue to strengthen all round cooperation with Malawi.

First of all, we will maintain the frequent high-level exchanges and people-to-people exchanges between our two countries so as to strengthen our mutual understanding, mutual friendship and mutual trust.

Second, we will continue to join hands together with Malawian side to make sure that all those projects under construction granted and funded by the Chinese government, such as the Parliament Building Complex, the Karonga-Chitipa Road and the International Conference Center and Business Hotel will be proceed well and completed on time and in good quality. At the same time, we will speed up the preparation procedures of the projects of the National Stadium, the University of Science and Technology in the South, and the secondary school, to make sure that these projects will be started as soon as possible.

Third, we will take substantial measures to further expand and deepen our mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation, especially in four priorities of agriculture, health and medical services, education and human resources development and infrastructure construction and will do something more in these areas.

We will further strengthen cooperation with Malawi under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The Chinese government will positively encourage and support more capable Chinese enterprises to invest in Malawi, especially in processing industry and infrastructure fields such as telecommunication and renewable energy. We will further open China’s market to Malawian products by granting more and more Malawi products special preferential tariff treatment.

Fourth, we will further enrich our bilateral relations between our two countries and peoples by expanding exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education and human resources, culture, political parties, armed forces, youth, women, media, NGOs, etc.. China will continue grant governmental scholarships to Malawian students, and will invite more professional personnel from Malawi to be trained in China.

Both China and Malawi belong to the developing countries and face common tasks of national development. The relationship between China and Malawi is based on the principle of mutual respect and equality, and is driven by our joint endeavor to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation and common development. I strongly believe that with joint and concerted efforts from both sides, the relationship and all-round cooperation between China and Malawi will have a bright future and will become a good example of China-Africa cooperation.