President Ma Zhiwu, who was leading a delegation from CCOEC on a 10-day business trip to Jamaica, was awarded a Certificate of Honor on March 19, 2008 by Dr. Kenneth Baugh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade of Jamaica in appreciation of the significant contribution made by CCOEC and President Ma himself to the cause of Jamaica’s socio-economic development. The Jamaican Deputy Prime Minister spoke highly of the meritorious role CCOEC had played over the past decade in successfully implementing the project of Water System Rehabilitation and Extension in Jamaica before officially conferring the prize on President Ma on behalf of the Jamaican government. A Certificate of Honor award is deemed to be a hallmark of national honor in Jamaica.
The CCOEC delegation headed by President Ma was visiting Jamaica from March 15 to 25, this year at the invitation of Dr. Horace Chang, Minister of Water & Housing of Jamaica. During the 10-day tour, CCOEC and its Jamaican counterparts signed a Handing-over Certificate marking the due fulfillment of its duties as equipment and materials supplier for Phase III of the massive water project, amid business talks it held with a number of Jamaican government ministries. The visit received wide coverage by local news media and the State Television conducted an interview with President Ma, the newscast of which struck a chord in the capital.
Upon signing of the Handing-over Certificate after a joint inspection of the equipment and materials supplied by CCOEC, Minister Horace Chang voiced special thanks to CCOEC for its excellent services in provision of quality pipelining products. The minister went on to express his wishes to continue working with CCOEC in the successive phases of the water project and, furthermore, extend bilateral cooperation to a wider range of fields such as low-income housing development projects. This was reflected in a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in ensuing water and housing projects signed afterwards between the two sides. In another development, the Jamaican Minister of Water & Housing in his letter to the Ministry of Commerce of China expressed sincere gratitude to the Chinese government, and CCOEC in particular, for the generous assistance and outstanding contribution that China had made to helping improve accessibility to potable water by the Jamaican people.
The Water System Rehabilitation and Extension project, initiated and phased in by the Jamaican government, is aimed at increasing the accessibility of clean water for households countrywide as part of a drive to combat poverty and disease in the Caribbean island country. So far three phases of the project have been wound up with major pipelining facilities provided by CCOEC on funding under assistance and soft loan packages offered by the Chinese government.
On the sidelines of the trip, President Ma and his entourage also paid courtesy calls on the Minister of Finance of Jamaica, and the Ambassador and Economic & Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Kingston. They echoed the Jamaican government’s extolling remarks on CCOEC and aired strong backing of CCOEC’s wider participation in Jamaica’s infrastructure development programs.
(Overseas Materials Supply Department III)