Speech at the Handover Ceremony of the Medical Supply Donations
- E. Ambassador Yan Xiusheng
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Barbados
Dr. Arthur Phillips, Senior Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health and Wellness of Barbados,
Mr. Nikkolai Cowan, General Manager of DHL Barbados Ltd.,
Friends of media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
It is my pleasure to attend the handover ceremony of the medical supplies donated from China to Barbados. At this moment, I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Arthur Phillips and his fellow colleagues for their efforts and hard work of safeguarding this island and protecting our lives and health during the dreadful pandemic of Covid-19. And I also would like to thank Mr. Cowan and his colleagues for their reliable work to help us mobilize medical supplies to Barbados to fight against this pandemic.
Today, we have two batches of medical supplies to present. The first batch comes from Hunan Provincial People’s Government, which contains 10,000 N95 Respirators, 20,000 Surgical Face Masks, 500 Surgical Protective Gowns and 500 Medical Protective Goggles. Hunan Province is in south central of China, with beautiful landscape, profound culture and history as well as strong economic performance. During the past months, Mr. Du Jiahao, the Secretary of CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, H.E. Francois Jackman, Ambassador of Barbados to China and myself have had several deep discussions on how to promote cooperation between Hunan Province and Barbados. Last December, the Provincial government sent a delegation to this island to explore opportunities of cooperation in agriculture, media, tourism, education and other areas, and had fruitful communications with relevant authorities and businesses in Barbados, the outcomes of which we can expect in the near future.
And the second batch of donation are 3,000 swabs, which, although not big in size, not expensive in price, but as many medical experts told me, are indispensable for testing COVID-19 and currently in terribly shortage internationally and many countries have restricted their exports already,. They are donated by the Chinese company COMPLANT, which is also the main construction contractor of Sam Lord Castle Hotel project in St. Philips and our Barbadian friends should be very familiar with them. As a company with long-time commitment to operate in Barbados, COMPLANT is not only devoted itself to the excellent hotel projects on this island, but also would like to fulfill its social responsibilities to support Barbados’ effort to combat the coronavirus. When heard that Barbados is in great needs of the swabs, the company agreed to bring some here without hesitation although they knew this is not easy job. And now they did it, I thank you, COMPLANT and Mr. Zhou. With the economic and social order gradually back to normal, COMPLANT has resumed their work according to the arrangement of the Barbados Government, which I believe will continue to contribute to the economic recovery and people’s employment on this beautiful island.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As H.E. President Xi Jinping stressed that, public health crises, with the current Covid-19 as an example, pose a common challenge for humanity. Solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons to tackle them. These two batches of medical supply donations are good examples of China – Barbados cooperation in fighting against Covid-19 hand-in-hand, as well as good examples of China – Barbados long-time friendship since we established our diplomatic relations in 1977.
Thanks to the strong leadership of the Hon. Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and the Barbados government, thanks to the arduous efforts of the front line medical workers and the delivery sector, like DHL, as well as the fully supports from the Barbadians across all walks of life, we are happy to see that the epidemic now in Barbados is under control and the situation is moving steadily in the positive direction. And looking broader, I believe that with the concerted efforts from the Chinese, the Barbadian and all the people around the globe, under the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, we can definitely win this battle against Covid-19 .
Thank you!
