Honorable Nii Osah Mills, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources of the Republic of Ghana,
Respected Mr. Chen Hongmin, Head of Jiangxi Culture Exchange Group,
Honorable Ministers, Regional Ministers and Mayors,
Honorable Members of Parliament,
Honorable Traditional Leaders,
Colleagues from the Diplomatic Corps,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends and My Compatriots,
Good evening!
I'm very delighted to get together and celebrate with you all the 67th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Ghana, I would like to extend my sincere greetings and best wishes to you and, through you, to the people of all walks of life who have long endeavored to promote China-Ghana friendship.
On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded. In the past 67 years, especially during the past more than 30 years of reform and opening-up, stunning achievements have been made in the socialist construction cause of China. China is now the world's second largest economy, largest trading nation in goods, largest holder of foreign exchange reserves, third largest outbound investor and tourist market, with GDP per capita reaching nearly 8,000 US dollars and 700 million people being lifted out of poverty. Through more than sixty years hard work, a modern China stands firm among the powers of the world. The Chinese people have never been so close to achieving the dream of national rejuvenation.
The year of 2016 has witnessed China is carrying forward undertakings of reform and development steadily under the central leadership with H.E. Comrade Xi Jinping as its General Secretary of CPC.
In the political field, we accelerate in implementing administrative simplification, improving administrative efficiency, and building a socialist country under the rule by law. We keep high profile on anti-corruption, investigate and prosecute every corruption case to strengthen the construction of anti-corruption system and mechanism. We continue strengthening power restriction and supervision, establishing and improving the mechanism of accountability and inspection, and caging the power with system. We vigorously advance the modernization of the national governance system and capacity as well as constantly improve governance.
In the economic sector, we abide by the five development concepts of "innovation, coordination, green development, opening up, and sharing" to resolve problems in development and tamp the development foundation. We intensify structural reforms on supply side, follow the general guidelines that "macro policies should be stable, industrial policies targeted, micro policies flexible, reform policies practical, and that social policies should ensure basic needs". We're committed to cutting overcapacity and excess inventory, deleveraging, reducing costs, and strengthening points of weakness to provide a steady stream of endogenous power for sustainable and healthy economic development. We advance initiatives of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", "Internet Plus" and "Made in China 2025" to lead the trend of new industrial revolution. In the first half of this year, China's GDP growth rate was 6.7%, and the final consumption accounted for 73.4% of economic growth. The tertiary industry accounted for 54.1% of GDP. 7.17 million new jobs were created for urban residents. China is still a major powerhouse for world economic development, with high expectation of the whole world.
In diplomatic front, we continue to carry out the great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and are committed to building a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation and fostering a community of shared future so as to protect and promote the common interests of mankind. We adhere to mutual beneficial cooperation and advocate a fair, open, all-round and innovative development as the core concept of common development. We also launched a series of initiatives and approaches, actively carrying out the "Belt and Road" Initiative, "China-Africa Ten Major Cooperation Plans" and international cooperation on production capacity and equipment manufacturing, actively engaging in international counter-terrorism and peacekeeping undertaking, and making more contributions to world peace and development.
As we often say in China, "A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden".On4-5 September, the G20 Summit was held successfully in Hangzhou. With the theme of "Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy", the Summit focused on key agendas such as "enhancing policy coordination and breaking a new path for growth", "more effective and efficient global economic and financial governance", "robust international trade and investment" and "inclusive and interconnected development". The Summit pooled the wisdom and strength of all parties, and came up with an integrated prescription to address both the symptoms and root causes of the world economy. China, in preparing for the Summit, actively safeguarded the interests of developing countries, gave top priority to development in global macro policy framework, drafted an action plan for the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and took collective actions to support the industrialization of Africa and the least developed countries to ensure that people from different countries can share the achievements of world economic growth, showing the sense of responsibility of China as a great nation.
Honorable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, My Compatriots,
Ghana is the second sub-Saharan African country to establish diplomatic relations with China. Over the past 56 years, China Ghana traditional friendship and mutual political trust have been consistently enhanced. This year, H.E. Mr. YU Zhengsheng, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference visited Ghana successfully. Ghanaian Minister for Finance, Minister for Education as well as other high-ranking officials visited China. The frequent bilateral high-level exchanges have greatly elevated China-Ghana friendship. Our cooperation on economy and trade has kept good momentum and yielded bountiful results. In 2015, China-Ghana trade volume hit a historic high of 6.6 billion US dollars, increasing by 18.2% on year-on-year basis. China's direct financial investment in Ghana reached 174 million US dollars. The value of China's newly-signed contracts in Ghana reached around 1.3 billion US dollars, ranking high in that of Africa. The Cape Coast Sports Stadium and Sunon Asogli Power Plant Phase II Project have been completed successfully. The new major cooperation projects, such as Phase II of Gas Infrastructure Development Project, Sunon Asogli Zero Discharge 700MW Coal Plant and China-aided 1,000-borehole project, are progressing steadily. These projects will further support Ghana to fulfill the economic transformation and benefit the people of our two countries.
Cultural and people-to-people exchange are the fountain head of China-Ghana traditional friendship. An old Chinese saying goes, "River, with sources never stop giving their water, will always flow and never be dried up". China-Ghana friendship pass on from generation to generation endlessly because of the interaction between peoples. At present, there are more than 4,600 Ghanaian students studying in China. In 2015, the Chinese government provided 90 government scholarships and more than 700 training opportunities to Ghana. This year, the second Confucius Institute in Ghana was unveiled at the University of Cape Coast. Chinese National Youth Football Team visited Ghana and played a wonderful friendly match with Ghana Black Satellites in Cape Coast Sports Stadium aided by China. Tens of thousands of spectators watched the match and the whole country was elated at the time. Today, the guests from Jiangxi Culture Exchange Group join us. They have crossed the vast ocean to present the extensive, profound and time-honored Chinese culture to our Ghanaian friends. Large numbers of beautiful photographs unfold the attractive landscapes of great mountains and rivers in China. A vigorous acrobatic show reflects the happy life of ordinary people in China. An open lecture in the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana highlights the charm of traditional Chinese medicine by words and deeds. Jiangxi Province established sister-region relationship with the Northern Region in 2014, thus all the members of the Jiangxi Culture Exchange Group are old friends of the Ghanaian people. Let's welcome them with warm applause!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Last December, the Johannesburg Summit of FOCAC drew a magnificent blueprint for the development of China Africa relations. In less than one year, China's comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership with Africa has been continuously enriched, as 245 new contracts worth of over 50 billion US dollars have been signed between China and African countries. Both China and Ghana should take advantage of this fast developing trend, focus on cooperation on production capacity, equipment manufacturing and private sector, and explore new areas and new modes for cooperation as well as accelerate the pace of integrating development strategies of our countries with the aim of complementing each other's advantages, enhancing quality and efficiency of cooperation and promoting the transformation and upgrading of China-Ghana cooperation in various areas. As a Chinese poem says, "A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves; I'll set my cloud-white sail and cross the sea which raves". Let us work together to usher China-Ghana relations into the new era of win-win cooperation and common development!
Now, I would like to propose a toast:
To the happiness and health of H.E President John Dramani Mahama and H.E. President Xi Jinping, our two peoples and all the guests present!
To the well-beings, stability and prosperity of Ghana and China!
Cheers!
Long live China-Ghana friendship!