Speech on the Handover Ceremony of The China-aided Project of Milling Plants in Zambia

2022-06-07 00:41

By Mr. Du Xiaohui, Chinese Ambassador to Zambia

Lusaka, 3 June 2022

Honorable Minister of Defence,Mr. Lufuma,

Honorable Minister of Agriculture,Mr.Phiri

HonorableMinister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr.Mubanga

Mr. ZNS Commander,

Friends from the media,

Fellow compatriots,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is such a pleasure for me to attend the handover ceremony of the China-aided Project of Milling Plants. In the face of a looming food crisis, the successful completion of this project has three special meanings.

First, If China and Africa work together to address crises including food security well, we will be able to tackle all kinds of risks and challenges in this century. The China-aided Project of Milling Plants is not only a fruitful achievement of the “Eight Major Initiatives” for China-Africa cooperation, which proposed by President Xi Jinping at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), but also an important part of the "Nine Programs" that announced by President Xi Jinping at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC last year. In the next three years, China will continue to implement the "Nine Programs", give full play to the role of the China-Africa agricultural cooperation mechanism, and let the certainty of China-Africa cooperation bring peace and development to the uncertain world and.

Second, the prospect for China-Zambia cooperation in agricultural is very promising. This week, the two heads of state had a successful phone conversation, and they specifically talked about agricultural cooperation. President Hichilema once emphasized that“Agriculture remains one of Zambia's cornerstones.” As an all-weather friend, China has always taken keen interest in supporting Zambia's agricultural development and food security in various forms as a priority area of its cooperation with Zambia.

A. To carry out technical cooperation and training. In recent years, China's agricultural demonstration center in Zambia has cultivated 10 new crop varieties locally, promoted nearly 700 hectares of high-yield demonstration planting technology of grain crops, provided technical consulting services to 5,000 people, and conducted 57 agricultural technical training sessions for more than 2,000 people.

B. To promote Zambia's agricultural exports to China.

Recently, Zambian blueberries and honey were exported to China for the first time, which is an achievement and a breakthrough in this field.

C. To render help in times of need.

In November last year, the Chinese Government donated a total amount of 3,099 tons of maize as Humanitarian Food aid to Zambia.

D. To provide aid projects to Zambia.

This China-aided project includes a demonstration plant at China-aided Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center in Lusaka, where we are, and two milling plants in Monze and Mpika, with a daily processing capacity of 240 tons each. We believe that once put into operation, the above milling plants will enable Zambia to effectively secure food supply, stabilize food prices, improve local processing capacity and added value to the agricultural production, create more jobs, raise people's income and ultimately promote the development of Zambia's agriculture and the economy as a whole, as well as sustain the China-Zambia friendship cooperation.

China is open to other new proposals to tap the potential of China-Zambia agricultural cooperation.

Third, China's agricultural development is a process of bringing certainty to the world. The current international situation shows that there is a long way to go for peace and development. In this regard, President Xi Jinping proposed the “Belt and Road Initiative”, the “Global Development Initiative” and the “Global Security Initiative”, contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to maintain world peace and promote common development. Seventy years ago, the people of the newly established People's Republic of China also faced hunger and uncertainty. However, today, China feeds nearly one-fifth of the world's population with less than 9% of the world's arable land, making a huge contribution to world food security. And under the framework of the three initiatives, China is willing to take the interconnected "Belt and Road" initiative as a guarantee and uphold the principle of extensiveconsultation,jointcontributionandsharedbenefits, so that all countries in the world can share the chance of China's development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China will always be Zambia's sincere friend and reliable partner.I firmly believe that under the leadership of the two heads of state, China-Zambia practical cooperation in various fields, including food security, will be pushed to a high level, and bring more benefits to the Chinese and Zambian people.

Thank you !

EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA All RIGHTS RESERVED