Chinese Association for International Understanding

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Summing-up Speech by NPC Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Zhang Baowen at the Seminar on People-to-People Exchanges between China and Sri Lanka


Dear Friends, First of all, on behalf of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU), I would like to express our thanks to the Sri Lanka friends present here for your efforts in promoting China-Sri Lanka friendship. The constant development of China-Sri Lanka relationship embodies the painstaking efforts of all the people concerned. I wish to extend through you our heartfelt respect and sincere gratitude to all the Sri Lanka organizations and personages engaged in the cause of China-Sri Lanka friendship. China-Sri Lanka friendship has a time-honored history and the people-to-people exchanges may date back to the 1st Century AD. In China’s Ming Dynasty, Navigator Zheng He sailed to Sri Lanka many times. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, our bilateral relations have gone through the vicissitudes of international situation, stood against the test of times and maintained stable and sound development, setting an example of friendly cooperation and win-win progress for state-to-state relations. In recent years, high-level visits between our two countries are frequent and exchanges and cooperation in political, economic, cultural and educational areas have been developing rapidly and achieved fruitful results. In September last year, President Xi Jinping successfully visited Sri Lanka and last March Sri Lanka President Sirisena also successfully visited China. Leaders of our two countries reached a series of important consensus on strengthening strategic cooperation, which provides further space for bilateral cooperation. At present, China-Sri Lanka relations are at the best period in history. China is fully ready to join hands with Sri Lanka in building the “21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” and make it a good opportunity to bring our bilateral relationship to a new high. Chinese people are always saying that the sound relationship between countries is based on the affection of the two peoples. In recent years, the exchanges in legislative bodies and NGOs of our two countries are very frequent, playing an important role in advancing the sound and stable development of the bilateral relations. China is willing to further promote mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples so as to further enhance the public opinion foundation for our bilateral friendly cooperation. In recent years, our bilateral pragmatic cooperation has been on the rise. China has already become the biggest investor in Sri Lanka. Our two countries have been carrying out fruitful cooperation in infrastructure, maritime and energy sectors and completed a series of big projects which are conducive to economy and people’s livelihood. According to statistics publicized by the Statistics Bureau of Sri Lanka, in 2014, our bilateral trade in goods amounted to US$3.62 billion, an increase of 17.5% year on year, among which Sri Lanka’s export to China was US$170 million and import was US$3.45 billion. China’s major imports from Sri Lanka are rubber and its related products, ruby and coconut oil. China’s major exports to Sri Lanka are textile, infrastructure products, construction materials, hardware and medicine. Between January and March of 2015, our bilateral trade in goods is US$1.05 billion, among which Sri Lanka’s export to China is US$160 million, an increase of 300% year on year, which means the deficit amounted to US$730 million. By the end of last March, China was the second largest trade partner of Sri Lanka and also the second largest importer from Sri Lanka only after India, and the fourth largest exporter to Sir Lanka. The main reason of the trade imbalance between our two countries is that there are really limited products of Sri Lanka that are truly needed in China. Since 1957, China has provided 13.48 billion RMB assistance funds in accumulation to Sri Lanka, among which 1.9 billion RMB is free aid and 840 million RMB is interest-free loan. When President Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka in September 2014, he announced that in the year China would provide 370 million RMB free aid to Sri Lanka and would also provide a package of free aid valued 1.5 billion RMB in the next 3 years. China-Sri Lanka people-to-people and cultural cooperation has been further expanded. In 2005, the two countries signed an agreement on cultural cooperation. In 2007, the first Confucius Institute was established in Sri Lanka. In the September of 2014, the second Confucius Institute was established in Colombo University. Since April of 2003, Sri Lanka has formally become a tourist destination for the Chinese people. In recent years, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Sri Lanka increased rapidly. In 2014, 128.2 thousand tourists from the mainland of China visited Sri Lanka. Between January and September this year, the Chinese tourists visiting Sri Lanka reached 170 thousand. The above-mentioned data show that the bilateral relations and cooperation are developing smoothly. Of course, such development of our bilateral ties is based on high-level political mutual trust. The two countries have understood and supported each other on core issues and issues related to our major interests. The Chinese Government appreciates that Sri Lanka has always been steadfastly sticking to the one-China stance and providing valuable support on issues related to China’s core interests. No matter how international and regional situation as well as the domestic situation in Sri Lanka change, China will always maintain friendly relations with Sri Lanka and firmly support all the efforts made by Sri Lanka to safeguard independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. As a friendly neighbor, China has paid much attention to Sri Lanka’s development. Over the past decade especially since the end of the civil war, Sri Lanka has experienced a process from turmoil to stability and from stability to good governance. China is delighted to see that today’s Sri Lanka is in a new situation with political stability, economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood, showing great potential for future development. Despite our differences in history, culture and political systems, we are facing the same or similar tasks. Although China is referred to as the second largest economy in the world, the per capita GDP ranked around 80th. As Sri Lanka, China also faces the challenge to deal with the relationship between reform, development and stability. We also need to address the problems of rural development, ethnic groups, poverty alleviation and employment. We will strengthen exchanges with Sri Lanka through various channels to learn from each other and enrich our respective development conception and practice, so as to better promote the economic, social, cultural and ecological development of our own country. Sri Lanka is an important country in South Asia and in the India Ocean. China regards Sri Lanka as an important cooperation partner and attaches great importance to developing the friendship and cooperation with Sri Lanka. We maintain the principle of win-win progress and common development in our bilateral cooperation. In recent years, the development vision put forward by Sri Lanka side is in line with the “21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”. We can base on the ocean related issues to enhance our strategic connectivity to promote our pragmatic cooperation. China will continue to fully support and participate in the development of the infrastructure in Sri Lanka including ports and roads and enhance our cooperation in building industrial parks, which will not only benefit China but also give full play to the unique geographical advantages of Sri Lanka so as to further make Sri Lanka into a hub of maritime transport and trade as well as promote the development and benefit the Sri Lanka people. Finally, we hope the organizations and personages engaged in the cause of China-Sri Lanka friendship to mobilize the social resources for more bilateral exchanges and dialogues of diverse forms so that we can further enhance mutual understanding and reach more consensus. Especially we can encourage more young people to take part in and be devoted to the great cause of our bilateral friendship, so that we will have fresh blood for our future friendship and such important cause can be passed from generation to generation. I also believe that with concerted efforts to improve and enhance the social foundation of China-Sri Lanka friendship, the tree of our friendship will be even more luxuriant and yield abundant fruits. Thank you!