H.E. Ambassador Pan Hejun giving a speech

Prof. Moses Kwapata, Principal of Bunda College of Agriculture

Faculty Members,

Dear Students,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to visit Bunda College of Agriculture. First of all, I would like to thank Prof. Kwapata for his kind invitation.

As one of the five constituent colleges of the University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture has produced many outstanding graduates for Malawi since its establishment in 1967. It is known that many of the trainers, administrators and professional workers in the field of agriculture are graduates of this college. I am well convinced that with its excellent management team and faculty members, Bunda College of Agriculture will contribute more to the food security and agricultural development of Malawi.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China and Malawi established diplomatic relations in December 2007, only three years ago. Therefore, I wish to take this opportunity to make a brief overview of China and its development.

Located in the Far East, China is the third largest country in the world in terms of territory, and has a huge population of over 1.3 billion people. With a history of more than 5000 years, China had created a splendid civilization, and used to lead the trend of world development. Unfortunately, in the modern times, because the feudal monarchy locked its doors against the outside world, China missed the development opportunities and was invaded by western powers. At that time, the country was poor and weak and people lived in poverty and hunger.

In 1949, the People’s Republic of China was founded. Since then, especially since the start of reform and opening up more than 30 years ago, profound changes have taken place in China. The economy has maintained a double-digit growth rate for more than three decades. Currently, China is the second largest economy and the largest exporter in the world. For those who have ever visited the big cities of China such as Beijing and Shanghai will think that they are no less developed than New York or London.

At the same time, China is still a developing country. We still have a big gap with developed countries. Our per capita GDP is only about 4000 US dollars, ranking behind one hundred countries in the world. Many places in the central and western regions and the rural areas are still backward. 150 million people still living below the poverty line set by the United Nations. There is a long way before a well-off society is built up.

Recently, the annual session of the National People’s Congress of China adopted the 12th Five-Year Plan. According to the plan, China’s development will focus on people’s livelihood. The economy is set to grow by 7% annually in the next five years, and 45 million new jobs will be created. The government will invest more to build a social security net covering all the farmers and urban residents. In this way, we will make steady progress towards providing all our citizens with a good education, a decent income, quality health care, an old age pension and suitable housing.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One of the most important reasons behind China’s fast development is that the Chinese Government always put education as the top priority of its agenda. The education cause of China, particularly the higher education sector has made a great leap.

Back in 1949, there were only 117,000 students enrolled in 20 higher education institutions in China. Now, China is the Number 1 in the world in terms of higher education scale and is home to more than 3000 higher education institutions, ranging from comprehensive universities to specialized colleges. Among them, over 100 universities are referred to as National Key Universities, such as the Beijing University and Tsinghua University, which are also renowned in the world. These universities receive additional government funding directed primarily towards research and postgraduate programs.

The higher education sector has been providing powerful support in terms of human resources for China’s fast development. In 2009, the higher education institutions of China produced a total of 48,000 doctors, 322,000 masters and over 5 million bachelors. The gross enrollment rate of higher education was over 23%, and the rate will reach 36% by 2015.

The higher education sector is also providing the innovation impetus for China’s fast development. In 2009, the total funding for research in universities was 11 billion US dollars. 70% of the winners of 2010 China National Natural Science Awards, National Technology Innovation Awards and National Science and Technology Progress Awards were from universities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With China’s fast development, more and more oversea students choose to study in China’s universities. In 1950, China received the first group of 33 students from the East European countries. By 2009, the figure of oversea students in China’s universities had reached 110,000. Among them, more than 8000 came from Africa.

In order to encourage more oversea students to study in China, the Chinese Government has taken various measures including the provision of governmental scholarships. In 2009, at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) China pledged to increase the number of scholarships offered to Africa to 5,500 by 2012.

Take Malawi for example, since the establishment of diplomatic relations, 98 Malawians have received Chinese Government Scholarships to study in China, some are graduates of Bunda College of Agriculture. This year, we will provide 33 new scholarships to Malawi. And the figure will be increased next year. To support the development of Bunda College of Agriculture, I’d like to pledge that we will provide three Chinese Government Scholarships to this college next year.

Besides providing scholarships, China also pledged to build the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), the construction work will be started very soon. In Thyolo, a secondary school funded by Chinese Government is under construction. And we will build a China-Africa Friendship Primary School in Lilongwe. The China Youth Development Foundation, together with World Eminent Chinese Business Association also promised to conduct “Project Hope” in Malawi, to provide 1 million US dollars for the next two years to build or rehabilitate several primary schools in Malawi.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This month, Prof. Kwapata will lead a delegation to China and sign a MOU with Jilin University, which is one of the best universities in China. This is the first time such kind of partnership is established between two universities of our two countries, which is quite necessary and important. I hope more and more universities will follow suit.

I am also glad to tell you that, the Chinese Government will help Malawi build an Agriculture Technology Demonstration Center. A team of Chinese agricultural experts are now in Malawi for a study tour. I believe after the center is established, there will be a lot of cooperation with Bunda College of Agriculture, or Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Thank you for your attention.