{"id":94706,"date":"2019-11-02T16:03:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T23:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94706"},"modified":"2019-11-02T16:03:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T23:03:14","slug":"summary-of-ambassador-cheng-xueyuans-remarks-at-the-dialogue-on-the-china-sri-lanka-pragmatic-cooperation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/02\/summary-of-ambassador-cheng-xueyuans-remarks-at-the-dialogue-on-the-china-sri-lanka-pragmatic-cooperation\/","title":{"rendered":"Summary of Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan\u2019s Remarks at the Dialogue on the China-Sri Lanka Pragmatic Cooperation"},"content":{"rendered":"

(29 October 2019, Lotus Tower Colombo) (Informal Translation)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I. The hard-earned\nachievement made by the People\u2019s Republic of China during the past seven\ndecades lays an important foundation for China-Sri Lanka relations to grow\nstronger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year marks the 70th<\/sup>\nanniversary of the establishment of People\u2019s Republic of China, which is a\nfundamental moment and a great chapter in human history. 70 years after 1949,\nChina has become the second largest economy, largest industrial country,\nranking first in terms of trade volume and foreign exchange deposit. China\u2019s\nGDP has grown by 175 times at an annual rate of over 8%, GDP per capita\nincreasing from 119 yuan in 1949 to 65,000 yuan in 2018. Urban population\nproportion grows from 10% to 60%. 700 million people, which made up 70% poor\npeople worldwide, have been lifted out of poverty. The incidence of poverty has\ndropped to less than 2% from 98%, creating a miracle in poverty alleviation\nhistory. The life expectancy has also been prolonged from 35 to 77 years\nold.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s believed that China\nbecomes increasingly important for the international society. China\u2019s\ndevelopment cannot be separated from the world and the world\u2019s progress needs\nChina. From closed-door policy to opening-up in all dimensions, China\ncontributes 18% annually to world economic growth. The Belt and Road\nInitiative(BRI) proposed by President Xi Jinping, have gained extensive support\nfrom over 160 countries, regions and international organizations. China insists\non supporting free trade and multilateralism while fighting against\nprotectionism and unilateralism. The steps of reform will become steadier and China\nwill open even wider. The BRI development will be shared to more countries. In\nthe next five years, China will introduce products and service worth over 10\ntrillion US dollars. The total outward investment volume will increase to 750\nbillion US dollars, outbound tourists to 700 million, which means a significant\nopportunity for Sri Lanka and the world as a whole to further develop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

II. Despite the complicated\nand ever-changing international economic situation, China\u2019s economy in 2019\nstill maintains great momentum <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Overall economic\nstability. <\/strong>In the first 3 quarters, China\nachieved overall economic stability at an increase rate of 6.2%, ranking\nfastest in terms of world trillion dollar economies. Various index shows that\nthe healthy and stable foundation of China\u2019s economic growth has not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Stable employment.<\/strong> Unemployment rate in September is only 5.2%. In the first 3 quarters, the\nnumber of newly employment has reached 10million, a completion of 99.7% of the annual\ngoal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Better business\nenvironment.<\/strong> Distribution service\u201d\nreform has been deepened and people are encouraged to do business creatively\nand drive innovation altogether. From January to September, 19,900 enterprises get\nregistered daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. The strong domestic\nmarket potential.<\/strong> From January to\nSeptember, total retail sales of consumer goods has increased by 8.2% and\ndomestic demand has contributed more than 80% to China\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Stronger Neo-Engines.<\/strong> In the first three quarters, the value-added of high-tech manufacturing\nincreased by 8.7%, investment in the industry by 12.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. New achievement in\nopening-up.<\/strong> In the first three\nquarters, the import and export volume between China, and ASEAN, EU, BRI countries\nhas increased by 11.5%, 8.6% and 9.5% respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

III. China-Sri Lanka\nrelations are in the best period of history.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

China and Sri Lanka are\ngood neighbors, good friends and good partners. The past seven decades also\nwitness the development of our bilateral relations, which has been renewed and\npushed forward steadily and smoothly, developing even better under the guidance\nof BRI and entering into a rising period in history. China has become the\nlargest partner to Sri Lanka in terms of foreign investment, contracting\nconstruction, tourist volume, and foreign aid. China-Sri Lanka friendship and\ncooperation is gradually becoming a cross-political party, cross-nationality\nconsensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tradition of mutual\nsupport\u201d further push forward the China-Sri Lanka pragmatic cooperation. In the\npast six months, China has responded to all kinds of emergency requests and\nprovided the biggest assistance to Sri Lanka in a fast and efficient way, which\nwas called Chinese Speed\u201d and Chinese Determination\u201d. Within one week after the incident, the Red Cross of China provided over\n18 million rupees of cash aid. Within two weeks, China donated 10 police jeeps.\nTill last month, the Chinese government has already provided emergency security\nequipment valued about 2 billion rupees to Sri Lankan Police, Parliament and\ngovernment. Besides, China also gifted a frigate to Sri Lankan Navy and invited\ndozens of senior officers to China for security training. Last Saturday, China\ndonated 10 million rupees to April 21st<\/sup> orphans at the musical\nextravaganza A Ray of Hope\u201d organized by the Attorney General\u2019s Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IV. Some facts about China-Sri Lanka economic relations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The Chinese government has provided essential capital\naid for Sri Lanka\u2019s socio-economic development.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        China is a most significant partner and\nlargest foreign investor for Sri Lanka. After the civil war, the Sri Lanka\ngovernment is in a desperate need to get foreign resources to re-establish the\ncountry and develop its economy. China, as a sincere friend and neighbor,\noffered the financial assistance that Sri Lanka need the most. All the loans\nfrom China are offered only after scientific assessment, and only at the\nrequest of the Sri Lankan government and the enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to the annual\nreport of Sri Lanka Central Bank and Ministry of Finance, by the end of 2018,\nthe total foreign debt volume is about 52 billion US dollars, 6 billion of\nwhich is from China, making up only 11.5%. More importantly, 60% of those 6\nbillion are preferential loans, with interest rate far lower than the market\naverage level, which means the repayment pressure is, in fact, mainly from the\nISB issued by western countries. In many cases, Sri Lanka government are using\nlow interest rate loans from China to repay the ones of much higher rate from\nwestern countries. China is not setting up, but instead helping Sri Lanka out\nof debt trap\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Loans from China are mostly\nused on ports, roads, and water conservancy projects that matter to people\u2019s livelihood,\nmeeting the desperate need of Sri Lanka\u2019s socio-economic development. The\ncooperation projects and loans from China have largely helped improve the\ninfrastructure construction, thus promoting the economic progress, improving\nlivelihood and providing more power for Sri Lanka\u2019s future development. Needless\nto say, the so-called debt trap\u201d is just another fake news fabricated by the\nwestern media. And their only purpose might only be containing the common\ndevelopment of China and other developing countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. The nature of\nChina-Sri Lanka pragmatic cooperation is mutual-benefit and win-win outcome.<\/strong> Take Norochchorlai Power Station as a good example. It provides  nearly 50% grid electricity for Sri Lanka,\nhelps solve the power shortage problem, ensures the stable supply of\nelectricity and makes the average electricity price drop by 25%. Both Sri Lanka\npeople and the nation have benefited from the power station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • China-Sri Lanka pragmatic cooperation brings huge employment opportunities but\nnot the opposite.<\/strong> It also helps\ntrain skilled youths that Sri Lanka needs the most in the future.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      According to incomplete\nstatistics, the bilateral cooperation has created over 100,000 employment\nopportunities and helped train over 10,000 technical and management talents,\nlaying a solid soft power\u201d foundation for Sri Lanka\u2019s own development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The\nChina State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) directly\nemploys more than 30 Sri Lankan managers and more than 2,000 workers. In\nHambantota, CSCEC also built a safety training and vocational center for local\nresidents. The center covers an area of 2,000 square meters and has 12 safety\nexcise projects and 6 vocational training programs, enabling many local\nresidents pass the training and assessment, and obtain a vocational skills\ncertificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In the\nyears to come, the Port City Colombo will create another 83,000 jobs for Sri\nLanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      4. China-Sri Lanka pragmatic cooperation\nprioritizes the pursuit of advanced technology, standardization and\nenvironmental protection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      5. Chinese companies and Joint Projects are\nperforming social responsibilities and doing charities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      6. China-Sri Lanka pragmatic cooperation\nwill never harm Sri Lanka sovereignty and security.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Some western media have been hyping up that\nChina is planning to build military base\u201d by constructing and operating ports\nand airports, which cannot be more absurd. President Maithripala Sirisena,\nPrime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Former\npresident Mahinda Rajapaksa have all stood up criticizing those claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In history, China suffered from imperialism\nand colonialism. China extremely values its sovereign independence and\nterritorial integrity, opposes any external interference, and never violates\nthe sovereignty and territory of other countries. Some external forces, under\nthe banner of “democracy”, have arbitrarily accused China of\nmilitarization while they are trying to do it secretly . It is believed that\nthe Sri Lankan government and people will have fair judgments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      V.\nSuggestions on the next step of China-Sri Lanka’s pragmatic cooperation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. We should jointly promote\nthe administrative and legislative bodies of Sri Lanka, accelerate the\ncompletion of relevant legal framework and policies with reference to\ninternational experience, create a more favorable environment for attracting\nforeign investment, and help the mega-projects to bear fruit as soon as\npossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      2. We must earnestly respect\nthe legal validity and commercial credibility of the contracts, maintain a\nstable policy, and ensure that pragmatic cooperation, especially mega-projects\ncooperation, will not be affected by changes of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • The media and\nacademic institutes of the two countries must earnestly exert their social\nresponsibilities, avoid copying third-party fake news and deliberate\nspeculation, have field-study on the relevant cooperation, conduct objective\nand fair research, and provide good advice and suggestions to the two governments\nand the business community. Only by doing this, could the general public have a\nmore accurate and rational understanding of China-Sri Lanka pragmatic\ncooperation.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        (29 October 2019, Lotus Tower Colombo) (Informal Translation) I. The hard-earned achievement made by the People\u2019s Republic of China during the past seven decades lays an important foundation for China-Sri Lanka relations to grow stronger This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of People\u2019s Republic of China, which is a fundamental moment and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}