Honorable Phil Goff, Mayor of Auckland,

Mr. Su’a William Sio, Member of Parliament，

Mr. Xu Pengqiang, Chairman for Changda Construction Group，

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen：

I am so delighted to be here today to be part of this ribbon cutting ceremony of Changda urban transformation project in Manukau. On behalf of the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland, I would like to extend our warm congratulations and our best wishes to Changda for the project.

This project reflects the fast growing cooperation between China and New Zealand. China and New Zealand relationship has developed rapidly, particularly since President Xi Jinping's successful state visit to New Zealand by the end of 2014. The bilateral exchanges and cooperation have been upgraded to new level almost in all areas. The comprehensive strategic partnership between our two countries has gained strong momentum of advancement with frequent bilateral high-level visits and deeper political mutual trust.

Now, China has become New Zealand's largest trading partner, largest source of international students, the second largest source of international tourists and the second largest source of foreign direct investment. Last year, the bilateral trade was 20 billion New Zealand Dollar and we are aiming to reach $30 billion by 2020. More than 450,000 chinese tourists have been travelling to New Zealand for the year to September of 2016 with our goal to reach 1 million by 2020. More than 60000 Chinese students are studying in New Zealand. More and more investors are coming here to look for opportunities to invest.

we are faced with tremendous opportunities in developing our co-operations with each other. New Zealand’s economy is in a good shape, enjoying the best performance in west economics. mainly driven by growing export to China and tourists from China. Our two countries economy is highly complimentary with each other. Currently, China’s economy is stabilizing with good momentum with 6.7% growth rate and China is in a very important period of structural reform and implementation of its 13th five year plan for economic and social development. The next five years are expected to be the golden age for china’s import and export. it is estimated that China’s import will reach 8 trillion us dollars and outbound investment 720 billion us dollars with more than 600 million travellors venturing abroad. I believe many of the travellors and investors would love to come to New Zealand and to Auckland like Changda .

Changda is one of the visionary leaders in coming to Auckland as one of the big cooperations in Shandong province China. Shangdong has a special connection with Auckland. Qingdao, a sister city with Auckland is situated inside shangdong province as one of the major cities in the province. Today the celebration of Changda International New Zealand’s achievement reminds us of opportunities that two side’s partnership and sister city relationship could bring. Changda Urban Transformation Project is one of the largest real estate development projects if not the largest invested by Chinese enterprises in Auckland. This project is conducive to creating more employment opportunities for local people, improving the local people's livelihood and social environment, strengthening the economic and trade links between the two countries, and enhancing the mutual understanding between the two peoples.

The Chinese Consulate General in Auckland will continue to work together with our New Zealand friends, from all walks of life with the Honorable Mayor, government and business to provide convenience and services for our Chinese enterprises.Wish Changda greater success!

Thank you!