Your Excellency Prime Minister Plenkovic,
Distinguished Vice Chairman of National Development and Reform Commission of China Ning Jizhe,
Your Excellency Ambassador Mihelin,
Distinguished Board Chairman Jiao Kaihe, President Zhang Guanjie, Vice President Wang Yitong and Vice General Manager Shan Jun,
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Friends：
Good morning！
It gives me great pleasure to extend, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Croatia, warm congratulations on the grid connection of the Senj Wind Power Project. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Your Excellency Prime Minister Plenkovic, the Croatian government and all sectors of society, including the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Planning, Construction and State Assets, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Municipal government of Senj for their great attention and support during the investment and construction of the project.
The Senj Wind Power project is the largest investment project of a Chinese company in Croatia, an achievement that the leaders of China and Croatia have paid attention to and promoted and the first clean energy project in China-Croatia cooperation. It has become a model of China-Croatia and China-EU green cooperation. The project will provide Croatia with 530 million KWH of clean electricity per year, playing an important role in increasing the production and consumption of clean energy in Croatia. I was pleased to learn that the project was built with over 40 local subcontractors, suppliers and service providers, employing over 260 local staff. Chinese enterprises have carried out over 20 economic cooperation projects in Croatia, creating more than 1,200 jobs and training many engineering, technical and managerial talents for the region. They have played a significant role in driving the development of local enterprises, increasing employment and tax revenue, and promoting local economic and social development. That fully embodies the concept of mutual benefit and common development adhered to by China's foreign economic cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Senj Wind Power project is a model of green and low-carbon development cooperation actively advocated by China. China’s President Xi Jinping has said that China will accelerate its green and low-carbon transformation and build modernization in which human and nature coexist in harmony，strive to achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060. At the same time, China will actively support and deepen international cooperation on green economy and clean energy, and China will no longer build overseas coal power projects. This will make positive contributions to improving global environmental governance, addressing climate change and building a community of human and natural life.
Dear friends, not long ago, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee was successfully held. The session summarized the major achievements and historical experience of the Communist Party of China in the past century, pointed out that adherence to the leadership of the Communist Party of China and adherence to the supremacy of the people are important reasons for China's long-term rapid economic development, long-term social stability and remarkable achievements in many aspects. The thought, theory, path and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era are effective and feasible. The session pointed out China will adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, advance the goal of national modernization, continue to deepen reform and expand the opening-up, make new contributions to stronger, greener and healthier global development. China's development is conducive to the stability and development of the world. China's development is not a threat to the world. It will bring new and broad opportunities to the whole world, including Croatia.
At present, China-Croatia comprehensive cooperative partnership has been developing steadily, political mutual trust has been enhanced. In February, Prime Minister Plenkovic attended and addressed the China-CEEC Summit hosted by President Xi Jinping. The summit reached many important outcomes and charted the course for cooperation. In May, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, paid a successful visit to Croatia and had in-depth exchanges with President Milanovic, Prime Minister Plenkovic, and Speaker of the Parliament Jandrokovic, which played an important role in promoting bilateral relations. China-Croatia economic and trade cooperation has been booming and trade has been growing rapidly. From January to September, bilateral trade exceeded 1.7 billion US dollars, up 37% year on year, among which China's import from Croatia exceeded 300 million US dollars, up 189% year on year. The Peljesac Cross-sea Bridge project has been successfully completed and will be open to traffic early next year. China and Croatia will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations next year, and relations between the two countries are expected to reach a new level of development.
The Chinese Embassy in Croatia will continue to strengthen exchanges with the Croatian government and various sectors and support more cooperation projects like the Senj Wind Power and Peljesac Bridge. We sincerely hope that more China-Croatia and China-Croatia-EU cooperation projects will take root and blossom in Croatia, achieve mutual benefit, make greater contribution to the local economy and society, enhance the friendship between the two peoples and consolidate and upgrade the China-Croatia comprehensive cooperative partnership.
At last, I wish the grid connection of Senj Wind Power project a success!
Thank you!