President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, welcomed the members of a high-level trade delegation from China, who are currently visiting Malta.
Whilst welcoming them at Sant’Anton Palace, and thanking Ms Sophie Chen, Mr Michael Bianchi, and Mr Carmel Briffa, Secretary to the Presidency for coordinating this visit, President Coleiro Preca said that Malta and China can boast of longstanding relations, at a diplomatic and political level, adding that these relations have been translated into tangible cooperation and collaboration on various socio-economic projects.
The President also spoke of the support that China gave to Malta at a time when the industrial and manufacturing industry was being developed in Malta.
“We have also managed to transcend this cooperation into sustainable friendship between our peoples. We have a very active Chinese Cultural Centre, because Maltese people have always appreciated Chinese culture. Malta and China also have a very effective friendship society which has been now active for over 50 years. Such facts are evidence of the importance that is being given to the visit by this high-level Chinese trade delegation over the next two days,” the President said.
She stated that Malta-China relations have stood the test of time because there are common values between the Maltese and the Chinese, saying that, “we are both hard-working and peace-loving people, and I think these values have managed to transcend through our continuous collaboration – collaboration that continues until this very day such as in the energy sector.”
On concluding, the President augured that the coming meetings with the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, other Ministers, the Business Forum and the subsequent business-to-business meetings with Maltese entrepreneurs, will prove successful for China, Malta and the respective business communities and peoples.
“I am so convinced that our long-standing relations, our sustainable friendship, which is a model for other countries to follow, will continue, not just for us, but also for future generations,” the President said.
Also present for this meeting were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health, Chris Fearne, Minister for Finance, Edward Scicluna, Minister for Tourism, Konrad Mizzi and Minister for Gozo, Justyne Caruana.