PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says he looks forward to enhancing relations with China as his administration modernise and restructure the economy.In his Facebook post following the presentation of letters of credence from the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China, Du Xiaohui, President Hichilema said Zambia stands ready to work with China for the benefit of the two countries.He also applauded China’s success within a short space of time, in areas such as manufacturing, technology, textiles, energy, health, mining and construction, even in the face of the recent global Covid 19 pandemic.“Today at State House, we received letters of credence from the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China, His Excellency Mr. Du Xiaohui.Zambia and China have maintained longstanding relations based on mutual trust and cooperation since our nation’s independence, relations that were founded and nurtured by our late Founding Father Dr Kenneth David Kaunda and the late Chairman Mao Zedong, and the people of our two great countries,” he saidPresident Hichilema said Zambia is committed to furthering and strengthening existing ties and cooperation, through the exploitation of untapped potential in the vast areas of mutual interest.He said he hopes the appointment of Mr Du to represent the People’s Republic of China in Zambia, will be in tandem with the strong values that characterise the relations that are based on mutual respect, trust and cooperation at both bileteral and multilateral levels.“We particularly thanked the Republic of China on the construction of the State of the Art Kenneth Kaunda International Conference Facility built through a Chinese grant, and looked forward to its handover in time for the mid year coordinating summit in July, between the Bureau of the Assembly of the African Union, and the Heads of State of the eight Regional Economic Communities of the Continent,” he said.
