China celebrates 69 years of the founding of its Republic
The Chinese Embassy celebrated the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Sunday. At the celebratory event at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, China’s Ambassador to Israel, Zhan Yongxin, noted China’s contribution to economic growth in the global market.
“The Chinese people, having gone through more than 100 years of hard struggle, finally witnessed the rebirth of their nation and embarked on a glorious journey for dignity, prosperity and strength,” Yongxin said.
This anniversary is an auspicious one as it also marks the 40th year of China’s Reform and Opening up — “an endeavor that transformed China and the world.”
During those four decades, China became the world’s second largest economy and the largest industrial producer and trader of goods.
China’s GDP and foreign trade have been growing at an average rate of 9.5% and 14.5% annually. The per capita disposable income increased over 100 times. More than 700 million Chinese people were lifted out of poverty, accounting for over 70% of the world’s poverty population.
Its comprehensive Belt and Road Initiative is set to connect China – through land and sea – to Europe and the Middle East.
In the past five years, the total volume of trade between China and the countries along the route has exceeded 5 trillion USD, the outward foreign direct investment from China has exceeded $70 billion, Chinese enterprises have built 75 economic and trade cooperation zones, creating $2.2 billion taxes revenue and 210 thousand jobs for host countries, the ambassador noted.
As for Israel, Sino-Israeli relations are growing on a number of levels. In terms of trade alone, “China is now Israel’s largest trading partner in Asia and the third largest across the world. In the first half of 2018, our trade volume grew by 21.6% and China’s import from Israel has increased by 47.2%, showing signs of big potentials lying in the trade between our two countries,” he said.