AS the People’s Republic of China celebrates 75 years since its founding, Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith has hailed the superpower as a true friend and partner.

Johnson Smith was giving a toast on Sunday at a banquet at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew, which was in celebration of the 75th anniversary founding of the People’s Republic of China. The banquet was put on by the Jamaica China Friendship Association.

“Jamaica is pleased to call China a true friend and partner. For the past 52 years we have had the privilege of working together at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels in a range of fora and on a variety of issues. Today we can celebrate an extensive and diverse bilateral cooperation programme that has all facets of growth and development as a nation.

“Indeed the Government and the people of the People’s Republic of China have been unwavering in their commitment to our strategic partnership. We have been the beneficiaries of the unquestionable generosity in education and the strengthening of our human capital through many scholarships and training programmes available to our students and public servants,” Johnson Smith said, as she outlined the achievements Jamaica has realised through it relationship with China.

The minister noted that Chinese investments in infrastructural development are evident in the expanded road networks across the length and breadth of Jamaica.

She said that China’s enormous support is also evident through the children and adolescent hospital which is under construction in Montego Bay, St James, and her own ministry office building in downtown Kingston.

The Western Children and Adolescent Hospital is being constructed as a 220-bed facility on the compound of the Cornwall Regional Hospital as a gift from the People’s Republic of China.

Johnson Smith also pointed out that most sectors in Jamaica have benefited from Chinese cooperation.

“Agriculture, health, trade, sport and culture has seen unprecedented engagement between both countries as together we seek to boost and deepen our very vibrant and dynamic relationship. China’s support of Jamaica during challenging times has also been greatly appreciated, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently in the wake of the passage of Hurricane Beryl,” the minister said.

“This robust partnership that Jamaica enjoys with China is most evident through our people to people connections which has its genesis in the arrival of the Chinese to Jamaica some 170 years ago. Since that time, the Chinese presence in Jamaica has been central to our identity and diversity as a people. Truly, we are out of many, one people.

“Today’s celebrations therefore assumes special significance as we pause to also acknowledge more broadly the invaluable contribution that our Chinese brothers and sisters have made to socio-economic development of our nation,” Johnson Smith said as she pointed out that the Jamaica China Friendship Association stands as an excellent feature of the relationship between both countries and people.

“I therefore sincerely commend the association, its executives, and members, for their consistent efforts to build on our affinity and strong people to people ties. The progress in our relations would not have been possible without commitment and dedication of successive Chinese ambassadors to Jamaica. I therefore take this opportunity to thank Ambassador Chen [Daojiang] and his team for always going the extra mile to deepen our engagement.”

In his response, Ambassador Chen expressed “sincere respect” on behalf of the Chinese embassy.

“Many thanks to the Jamaica China Friendship Association for hosting this event. In the past 75 years China achieved moderate prosperity in our business [and] as we speak, China is making a lot of efforts to build a great, modern socialist country,” the Chinese ambassador said.

Guest speaker at the event was Jamaica’s first Ambassador to China Wayne McCook who expressed a desire to see the relationship between Jamaica and China continue to grow.

“For the future —and I am looking directly at Ambassador Chen — Jamaica and China should further transform their cooperation to incorporate greater innovation and transfer of technology. We must embrace opportunities for joint manufacturing, research and development,” said McCook.

“At the same time, we must strengthen mobility logistics arrangements, pursue frameworks from enhanced trade and economic cooperation, deepen development cooperation and support greater investment flows in the quest for sustained growth and sustainabile development here in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. I say this in this way because these are the outcomes agreed by China and the Caribbean in a recent forum. None of this can work without people to people engagement,” McCook added.