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 China’s 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!