Honourable Henry Mussa, M.P., Minister of Labour and Manpower Development,

Honourable Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers,

Honourable Members of Parliament,

Excellences from the Diplomatic Corps,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening!

First of all, my wife and I would like to extend our warmest welcome to all of you attending the reception celebrating the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and my assumption of office. My greetings go to the Chinese overseas and citizens who work and live in Malawi. Thank you for your hard work. I would also like to express my most sincere gratitude to the Malawian friends, as well as the foreign friends, from all walks of life that have made their contributions to the development of China-Malawi friendly cooperation.

I am greatly honoured to be appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Malawi by H.E. President Xi Jinping, and recently presented the Letter of Credence to H.E. Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi.

Malawi has abundant resources, beautiful scenery, and its people are hardworking and kind-hearted. Over the past 50 years since independence, the Malawian Government and people have worked hard to explore a development path suited to the national conditions. Malawi has maintained political stability, economic growth and social progress. All these motivated me and gave me full confidence to further strengthen the friendly cooperation between our two countries.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Malawi more than six years ago, the bilateral relations have enjoyed rapid and sound growth, as evidenced by deepening political mutual trust and fruitful cooperation in business, health, culture, education, infrastructure and other fields.

Thanks to President Xi Jinping’s visit to Africa last year and Premier Li Keqiang’s visit this year, China-Africa relations have been upgraded to a new stage with rich content and extensive influence. The all-round multi-level new type of China-Africa strategic partnership contains not only innovative concepts and principles, but also pragmatic actions plans and concrete road maps. During Premier Li Keqiang’s visit, he proposed the “461 framework of China-Africa cooperation”. Four refers to four principles, namely treating each other equally, enhancing solidarity and mutual trust, jointly pursuit of inclusive development, innovation on practical cooperating. Six refers to six areas to promote new projects including industrial cooperation projects, financial cooperation projects, poverty reduction projects, ecological and environmental protection projects, cultural and people-to-people exchanges and enhancing peace and security. One refers to a new level of China-Africa cooperation.

Therefore, the China-Malawi relations are faced with an important development opportunity. I hope the development of the friendly relations between our two countries will be further deepened within the framework of China-Africa cooperation. The Chinese side attaches great importance to the development of China-Malawi relations. We are willing to work with the Malawian side to further advance our bilateral cooperation and bring greater benefits to the peoples of our two countries.

Coming to Malawi as Ambassador at this very moment, I can feel great honor in my heart and great responsibilities on my shoulders. I will spare no effort in promoting the bilateral ties and strengthening the friendship between the two peoples of China and Malawi, and I believe in fulfilling this lofty task, I will receive full support and assistance from the Malawian Government and people. Meanwhile, I am more than willing to make friends with Malawian people from all walks of life, the Chinese nationals in Malawi and my colleagues from the diplomatic community.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For the Chinese people the year 2014 is featured with endeavor and breakthrough. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people continue to stride on the road of rejuvenating the Chinese nation, working hard towards the goal of realizing the Chinese Dream. After 35 years of rapid economic growth, China has been ushered into a new era of deepened and all-around reforms. We have taken a series of measures to streamline the modern market, to transform the government function, and to intensify the reforms of the fiscal and taxation systems.

In the first half of this year, China’s GDP increased by 7.4%, which is a fairly reasonable rate within the expectation of the government. China’s economy maintained overall stability. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government has scored new achievements in diplomacy, with its friendly neighborhood consolidated and its cooperation with other regions of the world developed vigorously.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has achieved the same development within a few decades as the developed countries did in centuries. It is a historic accomplishment. However, we are also sober enough to realize that China is still the largest developing country in the world, which remains on the primary stage of socialism. China’s aggregate economy is large. However, once divided by 1.3 billion, its per capita GDP ranks after 80 countries. It requires lasting efforts before all the 1.3 billion people have a well-off life. Nonetheless, we are fully convinced that China will maintain the good momentum of stable and healthy economic development, bringing even more development opportunities for the rest of the world.

Now, may I invite all of you to join me in a toast.

For the good health of H.E. President Arthur Peter Mutharika!

For the ever-lasting friendship between China and Malawi!

For the wellbeing and happiness of the peoples of our two countries!

Cheers!