（Amman, 10th January. 2012）

First of all, I would like to express my warm congratulations to the convening of Jordanian-Chinese Business Forum in Amman. I also wish to take this opportunity to welcome our Chinese delegations and all the friends present from Jordanian Government and business community at this wonderful event.

Under the wise leadership and guidance of President Hu Jintao and His Majesty King Abdullah II, China and Jordan has enjoyed solid friendship and strong ties over the past decades. I totally agree with what Mr. Al Kabarati has spoken of that this friendship and ties rooted along with the great silkroad opened two thousand years ago, and that we are now together expanding this road well into the future. In spite of so much regional disturbances and global economic crisis last year, our ever-growing economic cooperation and trade relations has done enormously well: Sino-Jordanian bilateral trade substantially increased with a total amount of ＄2.5 billion in the first eleven months, an increase of 34% comparing to that of 2010. Our import from Jordan meanwhile reached ＄250 million, growing by 82% compared to that of 2010, as your excellency Minister Mr. Gammoh put it just now, Jordanian per capital export to China is hugely greater and very admirable. Concurrently, Chinese investment to Jordan has been expanded steadily reaching 180 million dollars in fields of resource exploitation, home appliances, clothing, trade and others. Chinese enterprises have been actively participating in Jordanian economic development covering fields of transportation, electricity and building materials. Based on the spirit of South-to-South cooperation, Chinese governmental assistance to Jordan has now bore fruits in successful projects like newly-built Baqa’a hospital, Water Supply Network Upgrading and Expansion and Low-income Family Housing. Our training programs have benefited more than 100 Jordanians in 2011 contributing in its own way to empowering talents of this country for better opportunities in future. All these show strongly that Sino-Jordanian economic and business relationship is a very dynamic one with a bright future ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen，

The coming year of dragon for both China and Jordan is a year of new opportunity. It is the first year for China’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan, which puts focus on Chinese economic and social development efforts on further enhancement of reform and a greater transformation of development itself, emphasizing, among other things, more and expanded global outreach as well as continuous mutual benefit cooperation. According to the plan for example, by 2015, China’s total economic output is to reach ＄8.6 trillion with a import worth ＄10 trillion. Jordan as one of most stable and promising countries in the region is certainly drawing more interest and attention from its Chinese economic and trade partners. We are happy to see that China has made many real friends here and so vise versa. Both Chinese and Jordanian Governments with their business communities have been for years showing their strong support for our economic cooperation. In April of 2011, the delegation led by Mr. Wang Jinzhen, Vice Chairman of CCPIT, paid a very successful visit to Jordan. The talks and exchanges between the delegation and Jordanian industrial and commercial leaders were most useful and mutual-enlightening. Today the delegation led by Mr. Yang Xiaodong will surely help to further deepen mutual understanding, engagement and consensus between business and political leaders of both sides and raise our friendship and economic cooperation to a new high.

Let me wish Jordanian-Chinese Business Forum a complete success and our friendly ties greater prosperous growth.