Chinas Envoy Underlines Strong Brunei Relations
By James Kon

Bandar Seri Begawan - Hundreds of prominent figures from the local Chinese community attended the 56th National Day celebration of the People's Republic of China at the International Convention Centre, on Saturday evening.

The guest of honour at the auspicious event was Pehin Dato Dr. Ustaz Haji Mohd Zain, Minister of Religious Affairs.

The celebration started with the national anthems of Brunei Darussalam and the People's Republic of China.

This was followed by the National Day cake cutting ceremony by Miss Yang Yanyi, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Brunei Darussalam, and Pehin Dato Dr. Ustaz Haji Mohd Zain along with his wife.

Miss Yang Yanyi, in her welcoming remarks, underlined the good bilateral relations between China and Brunei which have grown from strength to strength.

She highlighted the common desire and commitment to peace and the development of a more meaningful partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation.

And this has been demonstrated by the visit in September 2004 of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam to China and in April this year a visit to Brunei by President Hu Jintao and recently the visit by Madam Wu Yi, Vice-Premier of China, she added.

She hoped that both countries would continue to join hands to tap the various opportunities offered by each other, forge substantive cooperation and act as catalyst for one another to achieve higher development goals.

Touching on the achievement of China in the past two years, she said China has maintained the rapid pace of economic growth in the first half of the year.

China's GDP grew by 9.5 per cent reaching US$815 billion, while its import and export registered US$645 billion, a year on year growth of 23 per cent and its foreign exchange reserves amounted to US$711 billion.

Miss Yang Yanyi noted that China as the largest developing country in the world with a population of 1.3 billion remains a low-income developing countries where per capita GDP is relatively low by international standards - ranking 100`h in the world.

In this connection, China stands ready to advance economic reform, political reform, cultural reform as well as reform of public administration which can be characterised by transformation, openness, development and progress, she added.

Besides the grand feast, the guests were also treated to musical and dance performances by Chung Hwa Middle School's dance troupe and orchestra. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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