Honorable Mr. Dinanath Sharma, Minister for Education
Honorable Mr. Suo Lin, Director General of Tibetan Press and Publication Department,
Honorable Mr. Dipak Sarkar, President of World Culture Net,
Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends,
Good afternoon! It's my pleasure to attend the opening ceremony of the Chinese book fair held in Nepal. First of all, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, I would like to extend my thanks to the strong support of the Government of Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region government for the Book Fair, to the hard work of people from all walks of life in Nepal to host the Book Fair!
China and Nepal are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers. The traditional friendship of the two peoples began in the cultural exchanges. Fa Xian and Xuan Zang, master monks of ancient China, Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and the architect Arniko were great messengers of our friendship, who leaves milestones in the history of China-Nepal relations. In recent years, with the deepening of comprehensive partnership of cooperation between China and Nepal, bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the field of culture shows unprecedented momentum of development. Especially at the beginning of this year, Premier Wen Jiabao paid a successful visit to Nepal. Leaders of the two countries announced the year 2012 as Friendly Exchange Year, a strong impetus to the development of cultural exchanges between the two countries. Under the joint efforts of both sides, Chinese Government and Nepalese Government signed the Sino-Nepalese Cultural Exchange Agreement and MOU on establishing Chinese Culture Center in Nepal. A series of cultural activities were successfully organized, such as Cheering Spring Festival and Chinese Film Festival, Ambassador Cup Chinese language competition in Nepal and, Nepal cultural Festival in China. Nepal youth delegation, Nepal media delegation and some other people-to-people delegations of friendly exchanges visited China. The friendly exchanges in various fields between the two countries gains unprecedented good momentum.
Books are the crystallization of human wisdom, carrying the essence of historical, cultural, economic, political and other aspects of a nation, a society, a country. I believe the books carefully selected by Chinese side will help Nepalese people further enhance the understanding of China, further strengthen the exchanges and cooperation of the two countries in the field of book publishing. I believe The Book Fair will become another highlight of Friendship Exchange Year of the two countries. Currently, the peoples of the two countries want to enhance mutual understanding and friendship with unprecedented enthusiasm, which proposed higher requirements for culture and media workers of the two countries. I hope everyone could take advantage of the rapid development of bilateral relations to make a greater contribution to promote cultural exchanges between the two countries.
The 18th National Congress of CPC concluded successfully last month, which has made an overall planning of the future development of China. New goals have been set that China will double its 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents in 2020. China will therefore enter a moderately prosperous society in all respects. To realize the goals, China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, promote reform and open policy and devote all our efforts to a win-win cooperation with countries all over the world. China will bring more cooperation opportunities to the world by its progress and development. We will continue to promote friendship and partnership with our neighbors, consolidate friendly relations and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with them, and ensure that China's development will bring more benefits to our neighbors. The congress emphasized that we should open the cultural sector wider to the outside world and draw on cultural achievements of other countries, and strive to meet the grand goal of developing a strong socialist culture in China.
Nepal is an important neighbor of China. The Chinese government has always cherished the traditional friendship of Nepal and attaches great importance to the development of the comprehensive partnership of cooperation with Nepal. Over the years, the two countries have always mutually understood, mutually trusted, mutually supported. Round and deep friendly relations of multi-field continuously develop, as the model of friendly coexistence between countries in the international community. I believe that China's rapid development is bound to bring more opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation. China has been an ancient country with thousands years cultural development as well as Nepal. The cultural exchange between China and Nepal have a long history. Friendly exchange and drawing lesson from each other have been consensus and aspirations of our two peoples. China and Nepal should join hands to promote our development, and to make more contribution for world cultural development and harmony.
Finally, I wish the book fair a great success!
Thank you.