GUADALCANAL Province Premier Willie Atu has hailed the bilaterial relations between Solomon Islands and China, acknowledging the infrastructure transformational changes that it brought about in Honiara.
Premier Atu praised the 5-year-old SI-Sino relations when a delegation from Jiangmen City of the People’s Republic of China’s Guangdong Province paid a courtesy call on him and his executive at the Guadalcanal Provincial headquarters in Honiara yesterday.
The premier took the opportunity to highlight the transformative projects that China embarked on in Honiara since its establishment of ties with Solomon Islands in 2019.
He said, Guadalcanal Province is rated as one of the poorest provinces of Solomon Islands by a World Bank assessment report in 2013 and the province wants to change this situation around, adding that the Guadalcanal-Guangdong sister relations will bail it out from this state.
He said, his predecessor Francis Sade has renewed the sister relationship between Guadalcanal Province and Guangdong Province in May this year. This relationship was initially established in 1984.
Premier Atu said, his government has a foreign policy through which it will work to strengthen this sister relationship in pursuit of development.
He added, that Guadalcanal Province supports the National Government’s stance on the One China Principle and on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Premier Atu also took the opportunity to congratulate China on its upcoming 75th National Day anniversary on 1 October.
Jiangmen City Municipal Authority Chairman Zhang Lei, in turn, said he was very happy to visit the Solomon Islands after hearing many stories about the country since he was a child.
“It is indeed really magnificent because the sky is blue and the ocean is blue, which one traditional Chinese saying says ‘when the sky and the sea share the same colour this city is really nice’,” he added.
Mr Lei thanked Premier Atu for congratulating China on its 75th National Day anniversary, saying the kind words really touched him.
He said Jiangmen City is the Municipal City under Guangdong Province and the reason that his delegation paid the courtesy call on Premier Atu and his executive is to implement the sister relationship policy of Solomon Islands and China.
He said there are many areas for cooperation under the sister relationship between Guangdong and Guadalcanal provinces to boost the provincial economy of Guadalcanal and Solomon Islands as a whole and cited agriculture as an example.
Other areas of cooperation Mr Lei mentioned were culture, tourism and education, which he said work is in progress to establish Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs).
He said before he came to Solomon Islands, he spoke with the head of the Jiangmen city government, expressing that the municipal authority will try its best to support the development of both Guadalcanal Province and Honiara.
Mr Lei said he generally invites Premier Atu that during his trip to China in October this year, to visit Jiangmen City and expressed anticipation to seeing him there.
He thanked Premier Atu and his executive for receiving him and his delegation.
Mr Lei and his delegation handed over sewing machines to the Premier and his executive.
These sewing machines will be distributed to women groups and schools in Guadalcanal Province.
By IAN LADDS OSO
Solomon Star, Honiara
