Honorable Ms. Yumna Maumoon, Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage,
Honorable Dr. Ibrahim Hassan, Minister of Higher Education,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Good evening!
I am very pleased to be here with you in this beautiful evening to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival. On behalf of the Chinese government and people, I would like to extend holiday greetings and best wishes to our Maldivian friends from all walks of life and friends from different countries on the occasion of Chinese New Year.
Spring Festival is the most important holiday in traditional Chinese culture. Family members and friends get together to celebrate the coming of Chinese New Year, and wish for the harmonious family and happy life. Chinese Spring Festival is well known by people around the world and gradually become a universal holiday. The event "Happy Chinese New Year" was initiated in 2010 and widely welcomed with positive participation domestically and abroad. Tonight, the Chinese artists will perform a splendid show with martial arts and acrobatics for the Maldivian people. Artists from China and Maldives will jointly perform a program to showcase the closeness of our two cultures and the deep friendship of our two peoples. By inviting the performance group to Maldives, we are looking forward to strengthening the culture exchanges and bonds between China and Maldives.
Nowadays, the Chinese economy has entered a new phase of transitioning from high-speed growth to high quality development, operating within a proper range and maintaining overall stability and continued progress. For years running, China has contributed nearly 30 percent to the world economic growth, more than any other country in the world. Growing at 6.6 percent in 2018, China's GDP exceeded RMB90 trillion yuan, or US$13.6 trillion, for the first time, and the resulting increment year-on-year surpassed the average annual increment from double-digit growth over a decade ago. Facing lackluster new drivers and mounting downward pressure in the global economic context, China has enough resilience and huge potential to keep the economy on a sound track for a long time to come.
The enormous effective demand being generated by the 1.4 billion Chinese people who are moving up the income ladder will provide the world with even more opportunities in terms of market, investment and cooperation. It is estimated that in the coming 15 years, China will import more than US$30 trillion and US$10 trillion worth of goods and services respectively, injecting new and strong impetus and dynamism into global growth.
China and Maldives enjoy a long history of traditional friendship. China-Maldives friendly cooperative relationship continue to progress since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972.
In September 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a historic state visit to Maldives. The two heads of state agreed to establish Future-oriented All-round Friendly Cooperative Partnership, and reached a series of consensus within the framework to jointly build Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century. In recent years, the cooperation in various fields continue to expand and phrasal achievements have been achieved under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative. China is the largest tourist source country for Maldives for 9 consecutive years. More and more Chinese people choose to spend their Spring Festival in Maldives.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends!
Now China-Maldives relation is at a new starting point. Maldives gained great achievements in national building and economy transformation in recent years. As development partner and good friend, China is glad to see this and will continue to provide necessary help for the social-economical development of Maldives. The Chinese side would like to work along with the Maldivian side to consolidate the traditional friendship and deepen mutual beneficial cooperation for the benefits of our two countries and two peoples.
At last,
May the prosperity of our two countries and the happiness of our two peoples;
May all the guests good health, happy life and every success.
Happy Chinese New Year!