Ladies and gentlemen, friends,
Good evening! Welcome to the reception and join the 1.4 billion Chinese people to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. October 1st is the national day of China. And on September 29 this year, we will also celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival, one of the most important Chinese traditional holidays. So, I wish all of you, including the Chinese community, happy holidays.
74 years ago, the founding of the People’s Republic of China had utterly changed the destiny of Chinese people, and constituted one of the most significant events in 20th century. Over the past 74 years, China’s great achievements and its transformation from a poor and weak state to a prosperous country had attracted world attention. We won the battle against poverty and built a moderately prosperous society in all respects. We had created two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability.
Today, China is the second largest economy in the world with a GDP of 18 trillion USD. China is also ranked number one in terms of manufacturing capability, trade in goods, and foreign exchange reserve. In the past decade, China contributed more than 30% of global growth annually, and became major trade partner of more than 140 countries and regions.
Since the inception of year 2023, Chinese economy had picked up evidently. In the first half of this year, the economic growth rate reached 5.5% and trade volume of goods reached 20 trillion RMB.The Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience, tremendous potential and great vitality. The fundamentals sustaining its long-term growth remained strong.
Today, under the leadership of Communist Party of China, we are advancing the great rejuvenation of our nation through the Chinese path to modernization. This is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between human being and nature, and of peaceful development. China’s modernization will inject new and strong driving force to the progress of human society. The door of China is always open to all, and we welcome friends across the world to seize the opportunities brought by China’s development.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The purpose of China’s diplomatic policy is to safeguard world peace and promote common development, with a view to building a community with a shared future for mankind. In recent years, President Xi Jinping proposed Global Development Initiative (GDI), Global Security Initiative (GSI) and Global Civilization Initiative (GCI).
The objectives of these initiatives are to pool resources to accelerate the implementation of 2030 Agenda, advocate the new vision of security, which iscommon, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable Security, and encourage the exchanges and mutual learning among various civilizations. These initiatives are positively welcomed by international community. In order to implement the GDI, China had set up Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund with a total funding of 4 billion USD.
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.We will hold the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October, and have extensive consultation with all partners on pursuing high quality Belt and Road cooperation in the near future.
The top priority of China’s diplomacy is to strengthen the solidarity and cooperation with Africa. In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the guiding principle of sincerity, real results, affinity, and good faith in developing relations with Africa. We supported each other in safeguarding our core interests, and promoting the formation of a more just and fairer international order. In September this year, we supported African Union to become a full member of G20.
Under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative and China-Africa Cooperation Forum, we are forging synergies of development strategies with African countries. Recently, China announced that it would launch the Initiative on Supporting Africa’s Industrialization, which would help African countries in growingtheir manufacturing sectors and realizing industrialization and economic diversification.
We will launch the Plan for China Supporting African Agricultural Modernization, to support Africa in transforming and upgrading its agricultural sector.
We will launch the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development, to support Africa in strengthening education and innovation.
Next year, China will host the FOCAC meeting, where China and African countries may come together again and draw up new plans for development.
Ladies and gentlemen,
China and Seychelles had forged profound friendship since the diplomatic ties established 47 years ago. We are mutually trusted brothers and partners, supporting each other in good time and in bad time. We firmly safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and in this regard, we highly appreciate the One-China policy followed by the Seychelles government and its people.
We are happy to see that the projects aided by China such as National Assembly building, Palace of Justice, hospital and social housing etc. had contributed a lot to local economic and social development. The La Gogue dam raising project, undertaken by Chinese contractor, had successfully completed in June.
China medical teams had been providing service for more than 30 years in Seychelles and the Confucius Institute at UniSey had been proactively promoting Chinese language learning. We are happy to see that many Seychellois young people went to China to receive higher education or technical and vocational training. The elements of Chinese culture played an important role in the formation of Creole culture, and the Chinese community here is an integral part of Seychellois community. In a sense, we, the Chinese and Seychellois people, are living in a big family.
Looking into future, we are ready to work with Seychelles friends to further deepen bilateral relations. We will uphold the international system with UN at its core,the international order based on international law, and the basic norms governing international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, promote the practice of true multilateralism, and defend international fairness and justice.
We will further strengthen cooperation in tourism, fisheries, agriculture, blue economy, ecological conservation, addressing climate change, taping the potential of bilateral trade. We will work together to deepen cooperation in culture,education, health and people-to-people exchanges. I am confident that, with concerted efforts of all, we can create an even brighter future for our bilateral relations, and elevate our mutually beneficial cooperation to a new high.
To conclude, I would like to propose a toast:
To the prosperity of People’s Republic of China and the well-being of its people,
To the everlasting friendship between China and Seychelles,
To the health of all distinguished guests and your families,
Cheers.
Thank you!