By Monica Tambala

Lilongwe, March 9, MANA: The Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to Malawi, Long Zhou has expressed commitment of the Chinese Government in supporting the social and economic development of Malawi through various skill development and grants.

Speaking during a handover ceremony for the completion of maintenance works of the parliament building by the government of the People’s Republic of China, Ambassador Long Zhou said their intention is to further develop the cooperation and coordination that exists between the two countries.

“In recent years, the cooperation between our two parliaments has expanded. Last year, the Malawi-China parliamentary friendship was established and has been progressing very well and both sides look forward to further the coordination between the two legislatures,

This parliament building was built in April 2010 with a grant from the Chinese government but just like any other building, maintenance is always important, so upon the request by the Speaker of Parliament, the Chinese side made a decision to act and provide funds for the maintenance of the building,” he said.

He added that though the project may not have been very big, it had very sophisticated techniques and a lot of technical details such that the completion of the project is a good example of cooperation and coordination and has demonstrated the continued friendship between the two countries.

Speaker of the Parliament of Malawi, Catherine Gotani Hara, MP, hailed the continued support that Peoples Republic of China renders to the Government of Malawi and Parliament in particular.

“It is a great privilege for me to host this event today, we are all witnessing the handover of completed maintenance works of the roof and the floors at the parliament building,

We have refurbished this building after 12 years of occupancy without any major maintenance, as  such as the one just carried out. I would therefore like to thank the Government of China for reaching out and assisting with maintenance of the major areas,” she said.

Gotani however requested the Ambassador to assist in the transferring of skills and knowledge to the Malawi Maintenance team through exchange visits noting that this is one key challenging area in Malawi.

She said the skills transfer will benefit the technicians and, at the same time they can also learn how to speak and read the mandarin for ease of communication and reading of manuals, as some system manuals are in Mandarin.

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