Ms Julia Muetudhana, Acting Chief Executive Officer of NIPDB,

Mr Asser Nashikaku, Director of International Relations and Trade of MIRT,

Mr Rodney !Hoaeb, Chief Executive Officer of Namibia Trade Forum,

All our Namibian friends present,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning!

It’s my great pleasure to attend this dialogue and meet with so many new friends from relevant government institutions and local business community.

I wish to express our sincere appreciation to the NIPDB，Namibia Trade Forum and relevant authorities for hosting this event, which has provided an important opportunity for us to share information and views on this new policy adopted by China, and, more importantly, to explore the practical ways to ensure Namibia fully benefit from it.

As you know, the zero-tariff policy is applied on 100 percent of tariff lines to all African countries having diplomatic relations with China, which makes China the first major economy in the world to unilaterally extend such preferential treatment to almost all African countries.

This move is a reflection of China-Africa friendship and has also demonstrated China's firm commitment, as a responsible major developing country, to promoting South-South cooperation and contributing to the common development of the Global South through concrete actions.

Furthermore, it underscores China's commitment to high-standard opening up and represents an important step in supporting the multilateral trading system while providing tangible support to African countries.

This initiative will significantly expand market access for African products and facilitate their entry into China's vast consumer market. In doing so, it will help African countries develop their industries, increase incomes, improve people's livelihoods, and strengthen their economic resilience.

In my view, this is a landmark development in the history of China-Africa relations, which will create new opportunities for expanding trade, investment, and economic cooperation between China and Africa, and promote the high-quality development of China-Africa economic and trade relations in a robust way.

In the short term, the policy will substantially enhance the competitiveness of African products in the Chinese market, unlock Africa's export potential to China, and expand both the volume and value of African exports to China. From the long perspective, it will encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in Africa, supporting the continent's industrialization, agricultural modernization, and regional integration.

When we talk about the zero-tariff policy, we should also pay attention to China’s proposal to sign China-Africa Economic Partnership for Shared Development, or the CADEPA. As you know, the zero-tariff policy is an interim measure in the process of the negotiation of CADEPA, which will become permanent after the signing of this important document.

China has now signed the Framework Agreement with the majority of African countries including Namibia. We hope both sides could speed up negotiation and sign CADEPA at an early date which will provide a long-term, stable and predictable institutional guarantee for China-Africa bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and open up a new chapter in the business relations between the world’s second largest and the African Continent, and of course between our two countries. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As there exists enormous potential in our bilateral economic cooperation, we must think big and act from long strategic perspective.

We are deeply encouraged by the successful and fruitful state visit to China by H.E. Dr. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, President of the Republic of Namibia, last month.  

During the visit, President Xi Jinping and President Ndaitwah jointly decided to elevate the bilateral relations to a China-Namibia community with a shared future for the new era, and reached important consensus on deepening bilateral cooperation in extensive areas, which will provide strategic guidance for the development of China-Namibia relation in many years to come.

As I said at an event hosted by Standard Bank Namibia on Monday, and I now repeat, this visit will boost our bilateral economic cooperation in a way more forceful than ever before. Our two governments are firmly determined to further enhance our economic cooperation in all the areas we may complement each other, and so do our two business communities who have demonstrated unprecedented enthusiasm of engaging with each other. In future, China-Namibia economic cooperation will surely be strengthened in depth and scope and bring even greater benefits to our two countries.

In conclusion, I wish to assure our friends present here that the Chinese Embassy stands ready to engage more closely with the local business community.