Your Excellency, Secretary of State Mr. Arto
Mansanla,
Dear colleagues from the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs,
Ladies and
gentlemen,
Good evening!
First of
all, I would like to extend, on behalf of my wife and my
colleagues, the warm welcome to our friends from the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs. And on the occasion of the
Chinese Lantern Festival, I would like to take this
opportunity to wish you all a merry Festival and a smooth
and satisfactory Monkey Year.
During the past year,
the Sino-Finnish friendly and cooperative relations have
witnessed new development. The political dialogue between
the two countries, including exchanges between the
legislative and judicial institutions, has been further
deepened. The economic and trade as well as science and
technological cooperation has been enhanced. And exchanges
in the cultural, educational and other fields have become
more active and dynamic. Lots of high level visits between
the two countries have concluded successfully. And we had
more than 50 delegations of ministerial level visiting
Finland last year. During the second half of last year, Mr.
Luo Gan, Member of the Standing Committee of Political
Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Mr. Wang Zhongyu, Vice
chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference, Ms. Wuyun Qimuge, Vice Chairman of the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress and Mr. Zhang
Fusen, Minister of Justice paid an official visit to or have
a transit in Finland, which gave new impulse to the
bilateral relations between China and Finland.
In the
economic and trade areas, from last January to November, the
bilateral trade volume amounted to 3 billion US dollars,
registering a 24.1% increase over the same period of last
year. Finland has become the largest country in terms of
Chinas export to the Nordic countries, while China is
the second largest trade partner of Finland outside Europe.
In terms of investment, the two sides have been
speeding up the investment cooperation, with the Finnish
investment in China up to 4 billion US dollars in total.
China has become one of the main target countries of Finnish
investment. It is estimated that the total amount of the
Finnish investment to China will be doubled in the
forthcoming five years.
All these achievements should
be attributed to the friendly cooperation and persistent
efforts of all sectors of our two countries. Here, I would
like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of you for your
tremendous contribution and diligent efforts in promoting
the bilateral cooperation and exchanges between our two
countries.
Looking into the future, China and Finland
will maintain the momentum of friendly cooperation this
year. Mr. Antti Kalliomäki, Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Finance, Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, Chief of
Defense, Mr. Erkki Virtanen, Permanent Secretary of Ministry
of Trade and Industry, and the Transport and Communication
Committee of Parliament will visit China. Mr. Pekka Lintu,
Under-Secretary of State of Ministry for Foreign Affairs
will attend the meeting of the Finnish Ambassadors to the
Asia-Pacific countries. And Mr. Leif Sevón, President
of the Supreme Court, and Mr. Pekka Hallberg, President of
the Supreme Administrative Court are considering a visit to
China as well. The Chinese side has also been planning
visits of delegations of various levels to Finland. In this
regard, 2004 will be another year of the rapid development
of the Sino-Finnish relationship by leaps and bounds. We
sincerely hope that we could promote a more in-depth and
broader development of the Sino-Finnish comprehensive
friendly relationship, with the close cooperation and joint
efforts of our colleagues from the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs of Finland.
Finally, I would like to propose a
toast:
To the development of the Sino-Finnish friendly
relationship,
And to the health of all friends present here,
Kippis!
Kiitos!
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