Remarks by Chinese Ambassador Tan Jian at the Cultural Night

Celebrating the Chinese New Year

(6 February, 2018, Addis Ababa)

Excellencies,

Friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening. Welcome and thank you for coming.

Tonight we are here for the Happy Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, the most important traditional holiday for 1.3 billion Chinese.

Basically, we Chinese do three things to celebrate.

1) Family reunion. People are expected to return to their hometown and get-together with parents and relatives, just like our Ethiopian hosts when you celebrate your traditional holiday. You may learn from the news that the world's largest annual human migration has already been underway with more than 3 billion people on the move across China during the new year period. Very spectacular.

2) Bidding farewell to the past and embracing the new year, giving thanks and praying for prosperity.

2017 was a good year, some say the best since 2010 in terms of economic development. The global growth rate was 3.6%; China, 6.9%; Ethiopia, wow, 11.1% according to the statistics of the National Bank of Ethiopia.

And 2018 could be even better. We are optimistic.

In China last October, the Communist Party Congress of China laid out the blueprint for the medium- and long-term development. The policy focus has been switched from growth rate to growth quality. We will deliver.

Ethiopia will definitely grow at a speed faster than China.

We aim to build the community of shared future. We are confident that in advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Ethiopia economic cooperation would sustain the momentum and develop further to a new high.

Let me also say that we welcome tripartite cooperation in Ethiopia.

3) The third thing we do in observing the holiday is to hold cultural events, like Peking Opera and many local operas, giving acrobatic shows.

It is our great pleasure that Guizhou Song and Dance Troupe of China has come from afar to give us the performance. What a joy!

A few words on Guizhou. It is an inland province in South-West China with a population of 35.5 million. Economically, Guizhou is not as developed as China’s coastal areas. Yet it is catching up -- and catching up quickly. Last year, it registered the fastest economic growth rate of 10.2% among all the 30+ provinces in China. Culturally, Guizhou is very diversified and has 49 ethnic groups. You may notice that today I am in my most colorful dress. But you will soon see that the dresses of the artists are much more beautiful.

As a diplomat posted here, one thing I like most is that I can have three new years: that of Ethiopia, the solar and the lunar new year. And in between there are holidays like Christmas and Epiphony.

I like holidays very much. So do you, I believe.

Spring Festival is coming, which marks the end of winter and the start of spring. Four days ago there was a heavy rainfall in Addis Ababa, soaking into the field and fertilizing the soil. This is by all means an auspicious sign for the new year.

We are bidding farewell to the year of rooster. 2018 is the year of dog. Dog is praised for its loyalty, integrity, and hardworking. We all like dogs. The Chinese word for prosperity is 旺，sounds very much like a dog’s bark.

I wish you all the best in the year of dog.

Let’s enjoy the evening and have fun. Hope tonight will be a memorable moment.

Thank you.