Hon. Minister Mark Mitchell,

Hon. Mayor Phil Golf,

Mr. Li Guoliang, Vice Governor of Hainan,

Mr. Goodfellow, President of the National Party,

Mr. Jami-Lee Ross, National MP,

Mr. Nigel Howarth, President of the Labour Party

Mr. Raymond Huo, Labour MP,

Mr. Allan Sanson, Mayor of Waikato,

Distinguished guests, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon!

First of all, please allow me on behalf of the Chinese consulate general in Auckland to extend my warmest welcome to Hainan delegation led by Vice Governor Li Guoliang and to express my special appreciation to Mayor Allan Sanson of Waikato for his kind invitation to Vice governor Li to visit New Zealand. I am very delighted to attend today's forum on One Belt One Road cooperation between Hainan and New Zealand and to see so many distinguished friends both from New Zealand and China. This is another important Chinese local government delegation after Premier Li Keqiang's successful visit to New Zealand in March this year and also a very timely visit after the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing last month. I am confident that this visit will surely deepen the pragmatic cooperation between China and New Zealand, upgrading the level of cooperation between Hainan and our consulate district which covers Auckland, Waikato and Northern region and in promoting the joint construction of One Belt One Road.

'One Belt One Road' initiative was put forward by President Xi Jinping more than three years ago and has won constantly growing recognition, support and participation from the international society, and more and more consensus have been reached. The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation hosted in Beijing last month achieved many tangible results and highlights as follows.

First, it further clarified the future direction of cooperation on One Belt And One Road. President Xi Jinping pointed out at the forum that the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits should be firmly adhered to; a road of peace, prosperity, openness, innovation and civilization should be built;policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity should be our shared goals.To be more specific, the goal of this initiative is about to break the bottleneck of economic development, facilitate the flows of transportation and communication, fully demonstrate the comparative advantages of other countries and regions along the belt and road, release the potential of their development, and strengthen the soft ware interconnection of policy, rules, regulations and standards. To achieve win-win results. The world leaders responded positively to President Xi's remarks in the forum.

Second, a detailed roadmap for the development of One Belt One Road was outlined. During the Forum, China and concerned participating countries and international organizations undertook a comprehensive policy docking, signed dozens of cooperation documents, and fixed cooperation priorities and paths for a period of time in the future.

Third, a number of key projects have been identified. Through the platform of this forum, more than 270 tangible results were achieved, covering all areas of policy coordination, trade and investment, finance, culture, education and others.

China, as the host of One Belt One Road and the sponsor of the Forum, has put forward a number of new initiatives, showing the commitment and determination of China to build One Belt One Road with other countries. President Xi Jinping announced that China will contribute additional 100 billion RMB (14.5 billion US dollars) to the Silk Road Fund, and encourage financial institutions to conduct overseas RMB fund business with an estimated amount of about 300 billion RMB. These measures will provide a more solid funding support for One Belt One Road.

New Zealand has always been at the forefront in developing co-operations with China among western countries. With regard to One Belt One Road, New Zealand has been a pioneer as well. During Premier Li Keqiang's visit, the two sides signed cooperation agreement on One Belt One Road, making New Zealand the first western developed country to do so. New Zealand also attaches great importance to the Forum and sent a high level delegation to attend it. Meanwhile, the pragmatic bilateral cooperation between our two countries under the framework of One Belt One Road has been unprecedented. The people-to-people exchanges and economic and trade relations are growing very fast. China has become New Zealand's largest trading partner, the largest source of international students and the second largest source of foreign tourists.

As the southern frontier of China, Hainan has been an important part of the maritime Silk Road since ancient times with its unique location advantage. Hainan is very rich in natural resources, and has remarkable achievements in economic and social development. In recent years, Hainan has been actively engaged in One Belt One Road, becoming a pioneer in building the 21st century Maritime Silk Road.

Auckland and Waikato are two important regions in our consular district, Auckland as the centre of economy, culture, education, science and technology and Waikato as one of the most dynamic and rich golden triangle in New Zealand. Hainan province and our consular district have respective advantages of industries, which can form a good complimentarity and achieve win-win cooperation. The environment of both are beautiful, tourism is a pillar industry and the potential for tourism cooperation is huge. Hainan Airlines has already opened at least two nonstop flights from Hongkong and Shenzeng to Auckland last year. I believe that both Hainan and our consular district will be able to grasp the opportunities of the fast growing China-New Zealand relations and the joint construction of One Belt One Road, to promote the cooperation in such fields as port, aviation interconnection, tourism and others, and bring more benefits to people of both sides. This Consulate General will do our best to facilitate the cooperation between Hainan and our Auckland consular districts.

Finally, I wish today's forum a great success! I wish the cooperation between Hainan province and our consular district under One Belt One Road framework will yield more fruitful results!

Thank you!