(14 January 2010, Capital Hotel)

 

Hon. Mr. Augustine G. Mtendere, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, MP,

Hon. Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers present,

Hon. Members of Parliament present,

Senior Government Officials,

My Fellow Chinese, Chairmen of the Chinese Associations both in Lilongwe and Blantyre,

Dear Press Friends,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon. It is my great honour to invite you all here together to celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Malawi.

On December 28, 2007, H.E. Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, the State President of Malawi, made a wise and resolute decision to sever the so called “diplomatic relations” with the Taiwan authority, and normalized diplomatic relations between our two countries, which drafted a new chapter of China-Malawi friendship, and opened the gate for the mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation between our two countries.

Since then on, with the personal concern and guidance from the heads of states and joint efforts of both sides, China-Malawi relations have developed steadily and rapidly, and has gone from nowhere to somewhere. H.E. President Mutharika, in his remarks on the ground- breaking ceremony of the International Conference Center and Business Hotel on Dec.12, 2009, praised China as a friend in deed and an important development partner of Malawi, which is the best comment for the development of China-Malawi relations in the past two years.

Your Honorable, Ladies and Gentlemen,

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 conducted profound discussions and reached broad consensus on developing China-Malawi relations.

By now, 435 government officials including 11 ministers, 5 deputy ministers, the Chief Justice, the Commander of Malawi Defence Force and professional personnel from various fields of Malawi have been invited to China either for official visits 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 that, four deputy-ministerial delegations 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.

Your Honorable, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the past two years, the win-win cooperation between China-Malawi has become so fruitful, results are visible and tangible, and have substantially benefited our two peoples.

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 has been opened to traffic, the whole road of 101 kilometers is scheduled to be completed before the end of June, 2011. 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 be completed in 30 months, and will enable Malawi to host international conferences and summits, further promote the image of Malawi and facilitate its economic development. Furthermore, China will offer more concessional loans to help Malawi build a National Stadium in Lilongwe and a University of Science and Technology in the South .

The economic and trade cooperation between China and Malawi has grown significantly. In order to encourage Malawi’s export to China and help Malawi attract more investment for its self-sustainable development, China has unilaterally granted a Special Preferential Tariff Treatment to 466 kinds of products of Malawi to access Chinese markets without tariff. In the past two years, China has purchased 5835 metric ton tobacco from Malawi, with a total value of US$ 38.58 million. 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$ 1629 million, which was 21 times more than that of 2007.

China’s investment in Malawi has grown substantially. According to the statistics from Malawi, in 2009, the total Chinese investment in Malawi was US$ 29.19 million, which was 20.5 times more than that in 2007(US$ 1.42 million). 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 purchased 17,000 metric ton cotton, and 90% of them has been processed and exported to China. By now, the project has created 1300 regular and seasonal jobs for the local people and will help Malawi earn US$ millions as foreign reserve annually.

Your Honorable, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the past two years, the cooperation between China and Malawi in the fields of human resources development, education, health, youth, sports and media has been carried out vigorously, and the friendship between our two peoples has been deepened significantly.

In order to help Malawi strengthen human resources development and capacity building, 57 Malawian students have been granted Chinese Government Scholarships, 294 government officials or professional personnel from various fields of Malawi have been invited to China for seminars or technical training programs. Two Malawian youth delegations and 31 Malawian journalists have been invited to visit China respectively.

17 Chinese doctors have been serving Malawian people in Kamuzu Central Hospital and Mzuzu Central Hospital respectively. And 20 Chinese youth volunteers have been here in Malawi.

Now I am very proud to say that the friendly and cooperative relationship between China and Malawi is indeed in line with the fundamental interests of our two countries and is beneficial to our two peoples.

Your Honorable, Ladies and Gentlemen,

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 in the future.

First of all, we will maintain 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 the 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 for 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 so as to make sure that this relations should be and must be conducive to the national development and beneficial to our two peoples. The Chinese government will positively encourage and support more capable Chinese enterprises to invest in Malawi, especially in processing industry and infrastructure fields. We will further strengthen cooperation with Malawi under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and further open China’s markets 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 development, culture, political parties, armed forces, youth, women, media, NGOs, etc.. China will continue to grant governmental scholarships to Malawian students, and will invite more professional personnel from Malawi to China for seminars and technical training programs .

Your Honorable, Ladies and Gentlemen,

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 prosperity. I do strongly believe that with joint and concerted efforts from our both sides, the relationship and partnership of all-round cooperation between China and Malawi will yield more fruits and become a good model of China-Africa cooperation.

Finally, I would like to have the honor to invite you all to raise your glasses to join me for a toast:

For the good health of H.E. Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi,

For the brotherly friendship and growing partnership between China and Malawi,

And for the good health and happiness of all the friends present here!

Cheers, 干杯！