Chakwera arrives, meets Chinese Veep

President Lazarus Chakwera arrived in Changsha, China yesterday for the Third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (Caete) and went straight to a business meeting with People’s Republic of China Vice-President Han Zheng.

During the meeting, the President expressed his gratitude for being invited as the guest of honour at the expo in Hunan Province.

“It is an honour that I have been invited to officially open this year’s China-Africa Trade Expo. This shows that Malawi and China share good bilateral relations,” he said.

Chakwera said Malawi appreciates the assistance it receives from China, citing the construction of the Parliament Building, Bingu National Stadium  and the Malawi University of Science and Technology, among other landmark projects.

He also asked China to continue supporting Malawi through investments and pledged Malawi’s continued support to ‘One China’ policy, which refers to unification of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In his welcoming remarks, Han thanked Chakwera for accepting the invitation and to be the keynote speaker at the expo.

“I welcome you to People’s Republic of China, your excellency, and I’m happy that you will represent Africa in this year’s China-Africa Trade Expo,” he said.

The official ceremony happened about two hours after the President arrived at Changsha International Airport where he was welcomed by Sui Zhongcheng, head of the United Front Work Department at Hunan Provincial Committee, Malawi Ambassador to China Ian Josephy Chintedza and other delegates from Malawi, including Cabinet ministers Sosten Gwengwe and Monica Chayang’anamuno.

Prior to his departure at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe on Tuesday, the President said he will utilise the visit to China to negotiate debt relief of the bilateral agreements made in the past.

The Third Caete is being held under the theme ‘Common development for a shared future’. It will end on July 2 2023.

The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China said in a statement the forum is expected to build a new mechanism for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation and create a new window for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation at the sub-national level.

Previous two sessions held in June 2019 and September 2021 are said to have yielded the signing of 216 projects with a total investment of $43.02 billion.