Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga
The First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda,
Hon. Ministers and Your Excellencies,
Our Chinese community,
Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening ,
At the outset, Please allow me to extend, on behalf of H.E. Ambassador Zhang Lizhong, warm welcome and sincere appreciation to all of you for attending the Reception in celebration of the 74th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China. We are so much honored and privileged to have Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga gracing our event as the guest of honor.
On 1st October 74 years ago, the new China achieved her hard-won independence and self-determination out of century long humiliation by colonialism and imperialism. Since then new China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has traversed a journey in seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, guided by Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the new era, the Chinese nation has underwent a momentous and extraordinary decade, marked by three major events of great immediate importance and profound historical significance: we embraced the centenary of the CPC, we ushered in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we eliminated absolute poverty and finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus completing the First Centenary Goal. Sticking to peaceful development, China has cleaved out a path to modernization distinguished itself from that of major western powers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
President Xi Jinping solemnly announced at the 20th National Congress of CPC that the Chinese nation has embarked on the march to the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese Path to Modernization.
With a backdrop that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, the Chinese modernization also arrives at a critical juncture where it upgrades from high speed growth to high quality growth.
First, China’s market stays attractive to global investors. In the first half of 2023, China’s paid-in foreign investment went up by 3.8%, 24,000 foreign enterprises input new investments in China, marking a 35.7% year on year increment.
Second, China’s economy pools great potential for consumption. China has created a middle income group of over 400 million out of a population of 1.4 billion with a per capita GDP exceeding USD 10,000. This makes China the largest consumer market in the world, whose great capacity will strengthen the resilience of China’s economy to sail over bumpy international landscape and the transitional period of domestic economic adjustment.
Third, China has sharpen its policy tools responding the call of the time. China has put forth and carried out stimulative measures including debt-reduction, preferential loans to private sectors, stabilizing production and prices, encouragements on property market, streamlining administrative procedures for both import-export and business permission, as well as other improvements on business environment.
Forth, China remains a major contributor to the global growth and multilateral development cooperation. In the first half of the year 2023, China recorded a 5.5 percent GDP expansion, one of the fastest among major economies globally. And her whole year 2023 GDP is prospected to be around 5.2%, thus contributing 1/3 of global growth for 10 consecutive years according to World Economy Outlook.
Looking ahead, China’s economy walks on a steady climbing trajectory, with massive resilience, big potential and fresh vitality. I would reiterate that no country and nobody can deprive other countries of their right to development and innovation. Any such attempt is doomed to fail.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As we all know, there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of China. Under the guidance of one-China principle, 182 countries including Uganda have established diplomatic relations with China, and the one-China principle has long been an ubiquitously recognized international norm.
Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China’s complete reunification is a historic mission with unshakable commitment of Chinese people. No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ladies and gentlemen,
China and Uganda have forged unbreakable fraternity through our mutual support to each other’s struggle against imperialism and colonialism, and have embarked on a distinct path of cooperation in our journey toward development and revitalization.
Our political solidarity and high-level exchanges weathered through fluctuation and challenges of the times and went continuously concreted. H.E. President Museveni extended congratulatory letters to President Xi for his re-elections as the Secretary General of central committee of the CPC and as the President of China. The two leaders also exchanged letters marking the 60th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, bringing our relations to a new chapter.
Next year will be a significant year for China-Uganda high level exchanges. The 3rd South-South Summit and the 19th Non-alignment Movement Summit will be held in Kampala in January. Later on, a new FOCAC summit will be held in Beijing.
Our economic and trade exchanges as well as practical cooperation have withstood strong turbulence of de-globalization and gained momentum for new era. The trade volume between both sides has exceeded USD 1.13 billion in 2022, marking a 6.6% year on year increment. China grants zero-tariff treatment on 98 percent of taxable items originating in Uganda.
We recently heard the good news that 16 Chinese private investors have kicked start construction of their new factories at the Mbable industrial park which would employ more than 10,000 Ugandan Youth. President Museveni graced the earth breaking ceremony and highly commended Chinese business community’s contribution in Uganda’s development. The China-Uganda-FAO Agricultural program will capacitate 10,000 Uganda farmers with modern rice seedling and planting technologies and engage them into commercial agriculture.
Both sides will materialize Nine Programs, among which the Bamboo and Mushroom Project has concluded feasibility study. This year also marks the 40th anniversary that China dispatches medical teams to Uganda. Present here are the members of the 22nd Medical Team who have treated over 14,000 patients and fielded 11 medical tours up counties in Uganda in 1 year. Their successor, the 23rd medical team has just arrived in Uganda accompanied by their Headquarter operators based in Yunnan Province of China. Thank you all, and warm applauds!
Our cultural and people to people exchanges have been continuously deepened. The Makrere University Confucius Institute and the Luyangzi Confucius classroom have been teaching Chinese Language in Uganda for 9 years. Besides 20,000 college and middle school students, they’ve also trained 140 local teachers on Chinese teaching, and 500 more teachers will be trained in the coming years, so as to establish Uganda’s own education capacity on Chinese teaching.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are in a world, a time where changes unfolding in ways like never before, and deficits in peace, development, security and governance are growing. China calls upon the international community to act on true multilateralism, uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, and further develop and improve the global governance system.
As approaches to materialize the scenario, President Xi Jinping has put forward an array of inter-connected initiatives on global governance, namely the Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI). All three Initiatives assemble a system to address the global challenges of the times and open up a peaceful and prosperous era for the world with Chinese Wisdom.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s proposal on building a community with a shared future for Mankind. This morning, the Chinese government also published a white paper on that, which illustrates the goals and practices of the foreign policy of China.
This year, we will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has focused on enhancing policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people to people connectivity, with a view to delivering development and prosperity to all countries. Next month, China will host the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. That will be an opportunity for China and all relevant parties with Uganda included, to push for higher-level cooperation, better cost-effectiveness, higher-quality supply, and stronger development resilience in Belt and Road cooperation, and enhance the complementarity and synergy between BRI and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Africa always comes as an priority of China’s international relations. As a member of the global south, China has provided a large amount of development assistance to Africa and helped build more than 6,000 kilometers of railway, over 6,000 kilometer of highway, and 80-plus large power facilities on the continent. China will continue to enhance solidarity and coordination with Africa by jointly implementing the initiatives by President Xi Jinping at the 15th BRICS summit, respectively the Initiative on Supporting Africa’s Industrialization, the Plan for China Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization and the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today the China-Uganda relations are at their best in history. Standing at the critical crossroad of history, I call upon all fields of Uganda and China to forge ahead to fulfill consensus of both our national leaders and work hand in hand to open a new chapter of friendship, cooperation and brotherhood in the new era. The traditional Chinese mid-Autumn day is also incoming, I take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to you all in this regard.
With these hopes, I request the honor to make a toast,
To the long-standing friendship between the peoples of China and Uganda,
To the peace and development of our two countries, and
To the health and happiness of all the brothers and sisters.
Cheers!
Thank you!