Your Honorable Speaker Per Westerberg,
Your Excellencies Ambassadors,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you all for joining us at this reception. Tack and valkommen!
One hour ago, I presented the credentials to the King. Today it is the first snow of the year to celebrate this event and it will bring us good luck. In China snow symbolizes good harvest.
I am deeply honored to be appointed Ambassador to this beautiful country of Sweden.
We are enchanted by your splendid environment, felt the warmth of your friendly people,amazed by your harmonious community. I believe that my wife and I will spend a wonderful time here.
What's more, we are inspired by the development of our bilateral relations:
Sweden is the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Our diplomatic tie is nearly of the same age of the new China. Over the past 63 years, this relationship has maintained a stable growth and our cooperation have been deepened in all fields.
It can be summarized as "growth in three dimensions":
First, our political relations grow steadily.
Both China and Sweden attach great importance to development of our friendly and cooperative relations.
The successful visits by then Vice President Xi Jinping, then Premier Wen Jiabao and Mr. Yu Zhengsheng, President of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) set directions for the bilateral cooperation with strategic vision.
Second, our economic cooperation grow significantly.
"Boats surge high when the water rises". Our economic cooperation, covering wide areas, is high in quality and fruitful in results,highlighted in the areas of sustainable development, scientific innovation and clean energy.
Over 10 thousand Swedish companies are doing business with China and 500 of them opened their business in China.
Ericsson has excelled in China.
Ikea is widely popular among the Chinese citizens.
While the "marriage" between Geely and Volvo has become a model for the win-win cooperation between China and Europe .
They remind me, a nostalgic person, of my first mobile phone Ericsson, first car Volvo, and Ikea, the first foreign store that I shopped in Beijing.
Last year, withstanding the global economic downturn and the European debt crisis, the China-Sweden trade is valued at 13.3 billion US Dollars. It is a remarkable achievement.
Third, our people-to-people exchanges grow remarkably.
China and Sweden are both bestowed with rich history and splendid culture. Our attractions to each other have never been weakened by the great geographical distances between us.
The Nobel Prize of Literature won by the Chinese writer Mo Yan last year and the Volvo Environment Prize won by the Chinese scientist Qin Dahe last month further enlivened our peoples' enthusiasm towards each others' culture, science and technology.
Offering of Chinese language courses in the Swedish high and primary schools is raising the longing to learn Chinese among the Swedish people.
The Chinese Culture Center in Stockholm under preparation will be a new platform to showcase the Chinese culture in Sweden after opening of the four Confucius Institutes in Swedish Universities.
What's more, exchanges between China and Sweden on sustainable development are highly valuable for China's urbanization and ecological progress.
Sweden is a highly developed country, while China is the biggest and fastest growing developing country. We can be highly complementary to each other.
The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, concluded recently, formulated China's strategies for deepening the all-round reform and draw the blue-print for the future. It also unfolded an even broader prospect for China-Sweden cooperation.
What a great and demanding mission to serve as Chinese Ambassador to Sweden at this historic moment.
In my efforts to push forward the China-Sweden relations to a new high,I will do my best and join hands with Swedish friends from all circles:
More political mutual understanding, more mutually beneficial economic activities, more cultural exchanges, more scientific cooperations, and more people-to-people inter-action.
There is a 20-degree latitude difference between Beijing and Stockholm. But now the temperatures in the two places are surprisingly close. Some Swedish friend marvel that there has not been such a warm winter for many years.
I don't think it is co-incident. It will bring us good luck.
Over the vast snowland, I see red plums blossoming with pride. China-Sweden cooperation is just like a branch of red plums, young and tender, but full of vigor. We shall nurse it with our hearts.
I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to thank all of you, friends who have contributed to China-Sweden friendship and cooperation over the years.
I need your help, just like the help that you have given to my predecessors so generously.
Thank you.