(September 26, 2005)

H.E. Dr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain,

Chairman of the Celebrating Seminar,

Hon'ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare and

President of Bangladesh-China Friendship Association,

H.E. Barrister Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar,

Hon'ble Speaker and Chief Guest of the Celebrating Seminar,

Her Excellency Begum Selima Rahman

Hon'ble State Minister for Cultural Affairs,

H.E. Mr. Barkat Ullah Bulu,

Hon'ble Commerce Advisor,

H.E. Retd. Lt. Gen., Mahabubur Rahman, M.P.

H.E. Mr. Mosaddek Ali, M.P.

Mr. Riazuddin Ahmed,

President of National Press Club,

Mr. Nozmul Haque Nannu, Vice President of BCFA,

Mr. Nur Mohhammed Khan, Vice President of BCFA,

Mr. Muhammad Jalaluddin,

Secretary General of BCFA

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On the auspicious occasions of simultaneously celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bangladesh and the 56th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it is a great pleasure for me and my colleagues to attend this seminar organized by the Bangladesh-China Friendship Association. Let me begin by extending, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy and also in my own name, my heartfelt thanks to H.E. Dr. Khandaker Mosharraf and friends from BCFA for hosting this meaningful function and my sincere appreciation to Hon'ble Speaker, other distinguished guests and all friends present here for taking trouble to attend the seminar.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China and Bangladesh enjoy a profound friendship dating back to ancient times. In the early 11th century, Atish Dipankar Srijnana, an eminent Bangladeshi monk, took all the trouble to travel to China's Tibet region and preached Buddhism for 17 years, which is a much-told story of friendship between China and Bangladesh. About 600 years ago, China's famous voyager Zheng He in the Ming Dynasty sailed to the Indian Ocean seven times, and his fleet stopped off at the Chittagong Port many times. Back to those days, Bangladesh was the region with the closest communications with China on the entire sub-continent. We have many other ancient stories about people to people contacts between China and Bangladesh.

The official establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bangladesh on October 4, 1975 turned up a new page in the friendship and cooperation between the two countries. Over the past 30 years, both countries have followed the five principles of peaceful coexistence, respected each other and treated each other as equals. The bilateral relations between the two countries have been growing smoothly and have stood the test of history. The all-round and multi-faceted exchange and cooperation in the fields such as politics, economy, trade, culture, science and technology has yielded fruitful results. Both sides have also maintained sound coordination and collaboration in international and regional affairs. The successful and frequent exchanges of high-level visits have laid a solid foundation for the development of friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries. The recent exchange of visits by both our Hon'ble Prime Ministers during the past months has further propelled the bilateral relations to new heights. The two leaders agreed on establishing a comprehensive and cooperative partnership of long-term friendship, equality and mutual benefit between our two countries, and they also announced this year as the "China-Bangladesh Friendship Year". The history of 30 years has proved that China and Bangladesh have set a good example of peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems and cultural backgrounds and that our two peoples are all-weather friends who have gone through trials and tribulations together.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we harvest the fruit of 30 years, I would like to pay high tribute to our friends of BCFA for your positive role in promoting the people-to-people friendship between the two countries. As you know, contact and communication between different peoples are playing an increasingly important role in enhancing relations between different countries. We are so pleased to see that there exists a broad and solid base of friendly sensation towards China among the common Bangladeshi people. As a nongovernmental friendly organization, BCFA is composed of friendly people from various walks of life including honorable ministers, MPs, retired governmental officials, lawyers, teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, artists, social activists, and so on and so forth. During the last 30 years, under the outstanding leadership of H.E. Mr. Mirza Gholam Hafiz and H.E. Dr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, BCFA has frequently conducted various activities to introduce China to Bangladeshi people. All the friends wholeheartedly make their contributions to enhance our understanding and friendship through their work and personal social influence. BCFA always firmly stands along with the Chinese people in significant international issues and makes unremitting efforts in enhancing friendship between the two peoples. Their relentless efforts have not only sustained a growing momentum in our relationship, but also injected vigor to it in every step of our way. We highly salute them for their contributions and commitment. Here, I would like to particularly recall our old friend, the late President of BCFA H.E. Mr. Mirza Gholam Hafiz. As everybody knows, On May 4th, 1994, H.E. Mr. Hafiz was awarded the title of honor of "Friendship Ambassador" by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries for his consistent valuable contributions for the enhancement of the people to people friendship and friendly co-operation between our two countries. We sincerely cherish the memory of late President Hafiz as an old friend of the Chinese People.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to take this opportunity to say something about my own country?This year marks the 56th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past 56 years, and especially the last 26 years since the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up Policy, tremendous changes have taken place in China. Our productivity and overall national strength are constantly growing, social undertakings flourishing and the historic leap from subsistence to a moderately prosperous society is realized on the whole. China has become one of the world's most dynamic countries with GDP's annual growth rate at an average of 9.4% and economic gross volume multiplied by 100 times, ranking the 5th largest economy, the 4th largest trading power, and the 3rd largest foreign investment destination. And most important is the texture of its people's livelihood has steadily improved. This is mainly because that we have found a development path suitable to our national conditions, which goes with our times and the will of our people. This is the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. At the same time, we are fully aware of our problems such as the large population, weak economic foundation, uneven development, heavy pressure on resources and the environment, and all sorts of other difficulties and challenges on our way ahead. Although China's GDP has ranked among the leading countries in the world, its per capita GDP stands after the 110th worldwide. We still have a long way to go to realize modernization and enable the entire Chinese people to live a well-off life.

We have set our goal for the future, which is to build a fairly well-off society within the first two decades of this century and become a moderately developed country by the middle of this century. There will still be many predictable and unpredictable difficulties and various severe challenges on our road ahead. However, we are confident and capable of realizing the set goals. China's development will not only bring benefits to the Chinese people, but will also offer more development opportunities for other countries, especially the neighboring countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China always pursues her independent foreign policy of peace, advocating that all countries, big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, are equals. We will persist in building good-neighborly relationships and partnership with the neighboring countries, continue pursuing the policy of bringing harmony, security and prosperity to neighbors. We highly value the traditional relationship with Bangladesh and would like to work with Bangladesh to further strengthen the exchange and cooperation in bilateral and multilateral areas. We should take the opportunities of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the "Year of Friendship" in comprehensively implementing the significant consensuses reached between the two Hon'ble Prime Ministers on reinforcing cooperation in various fields. To this end,I wish to propose:

1. Broadening exchanges and deepening the traditional friendship?We should consolidate our traditional friendship and develop good-neighborly friendly ties. We should continue to deepen mutual understanding and trust through all kinds of exchanges, particularly direct contacts and dialogue between top leaders. Our two countries should work together to ensure sustained development of our friendly relations through generations. China will forever be a good friend and good neighbor Bangladesh can count on.

2. Promoting mutual benefit and common development. We should vigorously develop our economic relations and trade and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation. On the basis of expanding trade in traditional commodities, further efforts should be made to extend the areas of cooperation. China encourages more well-established enterprises to invest in Bangladesh. We should enhance scientific and technological exchanges and put priority to cooperation in development and management of agricultural technologies and other areas. We should expand cultural and educational exchanges and strengthen cooperation in human resources development and training.

3. Enhancing people-to-people exchanges and broadening the foundation of our friendship. China welcomes visits by friends from all walks of life in Bangladesh, for business or tourism so that you will feel for yourselves the friendly sentiments of the Chinese people. We also encourage more exchanges between Chinese non-governmental organizations and groups and the Bangladeshi people so that we can share our experiences in nation-building.

4. Keeping close coordination and collaboration on the key international and regional issues. Our coordination and cooperation in international affairs should be further strengthened and efforts made to advance the process of South-South cooperation and jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of our two countries and other developing countries. We should intensify our partnership and promote world peace and development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Looking forward to the future,we are filled with confidence. Ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius once said, "A person becomes firmly established at the age of thirty". We have every reason to believe that, with the joint efforts of our two governments and two peoples, the firmly-established Sino-Bangladesh relations will shine out resplendent splendors and bear more fruits in the days to come.

May China-Bangladesh friendship continue from generation to generation!

May Bangladesh enjoy prosperity and its people well-being!

Thank you!