Remarks on the Welcome Dinner of the Second China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Blue Economy Cooperation by Chairman Luo Zhaohui, CIDCA

Remarks on the Welcome Dinner of the Second China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Blue Economy Cooperation by Chairman Luo Zhaohui, CIDCA

(December 7, Kunming) 

H.E. Vice President Hussain Mohamed Latheef, the Republic of Maldives,

H.E. Mr. Wang Hao, Vice Governor of Yunnan province,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's my great honor to co-host today's dinner on behalf of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) and Yunnan province. Welcome you all to join us in the evening.

We are facing a very uncertain world. Big powers competition and regional conflicts are going on. Post-COVID 19 economic recovery is in difficulty.

How to enhance economic recovery confidence, how to reset the development issue as the centre of global agenda, and how to push forward global development cooperation, are big questions which need all of us to answer. This is the significance we are gathering here.

Someone may ask, China is not an Indian Ocean country. Why does China host such a  Blue Economy Forum in Indian Ocean region?

First, China is a member country of the UN. To implement the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Decade of Science for Sustainable Development is our joint obligation. The 14th goal of the SDGs is about Maritime cooperation.

Second, China is a dialogue partner of the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation. There are 23 member countries and 10 dialogue partners in this Association. We have our obligation to do something for the blue cooperation.

Third, China is pushing forward the Belt and Road Initiative, including Maritime Silkway. We have expanded multi-field and all-round cooperation with the regional countries bilaterally and multilaterally.

Fourth, Transnational issue needs transnational cooperation. Today, we are facing some common issues, such as maritime resources exploration and utilization, enhancing ocean environmental protection. We issued invitation to all countries of the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation. We hope all the countries could have sent high-level official delegations to attend the Forum.

Friends,

China has done our job to implement the SDGs and Ocean Decade. We have made contributions not only for our own economic development, but also for the global sustainable development cooperation including blue economy.

President Xi Jinping has proposed a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Global Development Initiative (GDI). We are doing our best to implement these thoughts and initiatives combining together with UN SDGs and UN Ocean Decade. Remarkable achievements have been reached. For BRI, we have done more than 3,000 projects and mobilized nearly 1 trillion US dollar investment. For GDI, we have established project pool and fund pool, and mobilized 12 billion US dollar specific fund. We also established the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund worthy of 4 billion US dollar. We welcome the regional partners applying for the above-mentioned fund actively.

We will continue to invest more resources for the global development cooperation.

Friends,

Last year, the First On-line Forum on Blue Economy Cooperation, co-hosted by CIDCA and Yunnan province, reached a lot of consensus. And the implementation process is going on well. Today we are gathering in Kunming again for the same obligation. I am quite sure that this time we will reach more achievements with our joint efforts.

Friends,

I propose a toast:

for a successful Forum,

for our regional cooperation,

for the health of all the guests.

Cheers!