Good evening! It is a great pleasure to get together with you all virtually to hold the once-a-year Fish and Dragon Festival, co-sponsored by the Central Bank of Barbados and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Barbados, celebrating the Spring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year in the Year of the Rabbit, which falls on 22 Jan, 2023. In Chinese traditional culture, rabbit represents peace and is a symbol of good luck. On behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Barbados, I would like to extend my Spring Festival's greetings to all of you, and wish you a peaceful, healthy, auspicious and successful Year of the Rabbit.
Dear Friends,
For both Barbados and China, the year 2022 was critical in bridging the past and the future. China successfully hosted the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, made coordinated progress in COVID-19 response and in economic and social development, and scored new, great successes in the cause of the Party and the country. The most important event of the year was the 20th CPC National Congress held in October, which mapped out a grand blueprint for building a modern socialist country in all respects and for advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts. Barbados successfully held the 2022 general election, and celebrated its 56th anniversary of independence and the first anniversary of the republic. The youngest republic in the world is thriving.
2022 was also a year of important progress in China-Barbados relations. We celebrated the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Barbados. The foreign ministers of our two countries exchanged congratulatory letters. We issued commemorative envelopes and held a series of events including online receptions, seminars, round-table forums, and online concerts. The Barbados Museum hosted an exhibition titled "From Beijing to Bridgetown", which brought the atmosphere of friendship between the two countries to a new level.
In the field of pragmatic cooperation, China and Barbados have signed an exchange of notes on National Stadium Redevelopment project and a Concessional Loan Agreement for Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project. The construction of Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel, with preferential loan from China, is about to be completed. China-aided project, the Center for Food Security and Entrepreneurship, has started construction. The vegetable greenhouse project has entered the implementation phase. China has further provided cash grant of US$ 200,000 for anti-epidemic and medical assistance as well as CNY 300,000 for disaster prevention and mitigation assistance to Barbados.
With regard to the people-to-people and cultural exchanges, the Chinese Embassy in Barbados donated 50 laptops to the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training of Barbados to help teachers and students affected by COVID-19 pandemic participate in online learning. The Zibo People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries in China established relations with the Association for Barbados-China Friendship in Barbados. The Confucius Institute of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus held a variety of activities including the "China in my eyes" painting competition. China also granted government scholarship to 4 Barbadian students to study in China.
Dear Friends,
The year 2023 marks the beginning of full implementation of the guiding principles laid down at the 20th CPC National Congress and a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects. It’s also an important year for the friendly relations between China and Barbados to enter a new stage of development.
Around the world, the trends of transformation and turbulence are both evolving continuously and the tendencies toward unity and division are both surging and contending with each other. In the new global context, any attempt of conflict, confrontation, containment and decoupling runs against the prevailing trend of our times and is doomed to fail; peace, development, cooperation and win-win represent the popular will of the people and an international trend.
Under the guidance of the spirit of the phone conversation between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, China and Barbados will firmly stick to the right direction of bilateral relations, maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges, continuously enhance political mutual trust, promote the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, jointly implement the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and lift the China-Barbados ties to a higher level so as to enable the cooperation to benefit the two peoples and jointly build a China-Barbados community with a shared future.
Finally, I wish you all good health, and all the best in the Year of the Rabbit!