March 22nd 2012, Peach Palace
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, my dear friends:
Good evening!
With the advent of spring the land is vibrant with life again. I am so delighted to have 12 Honorary Advisers of the Asia NZ Foundation, coming from 10 different Asian countries, gathering here in Beijing and, for the first time in the history, holding the Honorary Advisers'''' Meeting in China.
On behalf of the Chinese People''''s Association for Friendship Foreign Countries, I''''d like to extend my warm welcome to the delegation of the Honorary Advisers and their companies, and also my appreciations to friends from NZ Embassy and relevant departments and organizations, as well as the young leaders from both sides.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand. We are delighted to see that, with the joint efforts of our two sides, the development of bilateral relations enjoys a gratifying momentum, with frequent high level exchanges and deepening political trust. Since the implementation of the China-NZ Free Trade Agreement, bilateral economic and trade ties have been developing rapidly, oriented toward all-round, multi-level and broad areas. We have also achieved further development of friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in various fields.
As a friendly organization specializing in people-to-people relations, we have a good understanding that humanities exchanges serve as an important bridge for enhancing friendship between the people all over the world. In order to promote the understanding and friendship between the young people of our two countries, and help them building up a global awareness, CPAFFC and the Asia NZ Foundation launched a project on China-NZ Youth Exchange. In June 2010, witnessed by Vice President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister John Key, we signed an exchange of letters on the project. Up to now, we have successfully exchanged visits for three groups of young leaders. The fourth one is from China. They are going to visit New Zealand in May. As invited by us, they are also present here today.
On the fifth Session of the Eleventh National People''''s Congress, which just concluded a few days ago, Primer Wen Jiabao stressed in his government work report about the need to continue to make greater contributions to promoting world economic development, safeguarding peace and maintaining stability.
In a backdrop of the complicated international situation and uncertainties of the recovery of the world economic, China and New Zealand share broad common interests and enjoy great potential of cooperation in promoting national and regional economic growth, as well as maintaining regional and world peace, stability and prosperity.
Strengthening the bilateral ties not only conforms to the development trend of the times but also the common aspirations of our two peoples. On the basis of accommodating each other''''s concerns and core interests, we are ready to join hands with not only Asia NZ Foundation, but also the insightful people from Asian countries, to further deepen the mutually-beneficial cooperation in various fields including economy, trade, environmental protection, new energy and sustainable development, and to strengthen the communication and coordination in international and regional affairs. We will make unremitting efforts for the well-being of people in all countries and a lasting peace, prosperity and homony in the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world at large.
Time flies! Meeting with the Honorary Advisers presenting here tonight brought me back to the lovely memories in Auckland two years ago. I sincerely hope you will have equally unforgettable memories of the 2012 meeting too.
Again, I wish the Meeting of Honorary Advisers of Asia NZ Foundation a great success, and hope you have a good time in Beijing.
Thank you.
