Ties between Malta and China peaked a few years ago in 2014 with the visit of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to Beijing and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. Vanessa Macdonald asked Qiu Guangling, the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Malta, for an update to the projects mentioned at the time.

The MOU outlined various projects: what has actually materialised since then?

China and Malta enjoy a long-standing friendship ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972. The bilateral economic and trade relationship has maintained its good momentum of development and both countries have witnessed fruitful cooperation during recent years.

The MOU on a five-year Medium-Term Cooperation Plan was signed between the Chinese and the Maltese governments in July 2014, witnessed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. On the joint efforts of both sides, there have already been quite a few progresses in various areas since then. Last May, Gao Yan, China’s Vice Minister of Commerce led a delegation to Malta, and together with Chris Cardona, Minister of Economy, Investment and Small Business of Malta, chaired the 10th China-Malta Joint Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, during which extensive consensus was reached to further tighten bilateral economic and commercial ties.

Chinese investments in Malta grew rapidly over these years. The cooperation between Shanghai Electric Power and Enemalta has become a new highlight and injected new vitality to the practical bilateral economic cooperation. Apart from their fruitful cooperation in Malta and Montenegro, they have also successfully taken their first step of seeking renewable energy projects jointly in other European countries.

Huawei, a leading Chinese company in global information and communications solutions market, has opened its local office in Malta and has signed MOUs with the Maltese government on ICT research and development in Malta.

In the field of research and innovation, Chinese and Maltese officials convened their first meeting of the Joint Commission on Science and Technological Cooperation in August 2015, and an agreement has been concluded on the establishment of a Joint Research Centre in Aquaculture. Both sides have been keeping in touch since then to further deepen the cooperation.

In the field of medical care and health, the Mediterranean Regional Centre for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Paola has played an important role in enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries and peoples since its establishment in 1994, as a Sino-Maltese medical cooperation project. During the past 22 years, more than 70 experienced and skilled doctors from 12 Chinese medical teams have provided professional medical services to over 160,000 patients. The outstanding work of the Chinese medical teams has been highly appreciated by the Maltese people and valued by both Chinese and Maltese governments. Efforts are being taken by both countries to strengthen and expand the cooperation in medical service and health area.

A delegation headed by Li Bin, Minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of Health of China, visited Malta earlier this month and met President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and Health Minister  Chris Fearne. A new protocol on cooperation in the field of traditional Chinese medicine was signed during the visit.

In the field of tourism, last year, the Maltese government signed a MOU with Beijing Caissa, an international travel service provider, aiming to attract more tourists from China to Malta.

In the field of education, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the University of Malta initiated their cooperation project in November 2015, to provide an educational course of studies in traditional Chinese medicine and culture.

In the field of sports, China’s General Administration of Sport signed a MOU with Malta’s Parliamentary Secretary for Youth and Sport Chris Agius in March 2015, providing that the two sides will endeavour to develop sports exchanges and cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit.

Efforts are also being taken by both the Chinese side and the Maltese side in many other areas, such as promoting the use of Union Pay cards in Malta to further facilitate Chinese tourists who travel to Malta on private vacation or for business purposes, establishing and operating of commercial satellite ground receiving stations in Malta, and cooperation in the field of gene bioinformatics.

Last year, a steering council was established to guide the implementation of the MOU, headed by the Foreign Minister Wang Yi from the Chinese side and Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech from the Maltese side, which will surely contribute in further deepening bilateral cooperation.

I also firmly believe that more opportunities will be created along with China’s continuously deepened reform and opening up. We encourage enterprises of both countries to seek actively for cooperation opportunities under the framework of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative and international industrial capacity cooperation. Looking into the future, I am fully confident in the bright future of our bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

One of the projects was for Huawei to use Malta for research but for quite a while, they only had a small office with a few people. Has anything changed?

Huawei opened an office in Smart City in July 2015. As usual in these cases, as the business increases, the staff will grow as well. Let’s take Huawei Italy as an example. Three or four years ago, Huawei Italy had a very small organisation, but today it has over 600 employees of which 85 per cent are hired locally.

I believe, as long as we keep in contact under the principle of equality and mutual benefit, a way of cooperation could be found [for Air Malta]

Huawei is in talks with the local operators interested in upgrading the infrastructure in view of the potentialities offered by 5G. The company is also willing to provide various services and support to the government, including sharing of best practices and providing solutions for Digital Malta’s ICT strategy plan. Huawei is also collaborating with the academic environment. As a result of this, Huawei has extended its global flagship education project “Seeds for the Future” to Maltese students. The programme aims at increasing the digital skills of undergraduate students through a training course entirely funded by Huawei at their headquarters in China. The first batch of trainees from Malta will participate in the next session of the programme later this spring.

Another project was the Marsamxett breakwater but in the Budget for 2017, the government announced that the project might be financed through the European Fund for Strategic Investment. Is China no longer going to be involved?

The Marsamxett breakwater was mentioned in the MOU between the Chinese and Maltese governments as one of the key cooperation projects in transportation infrastructure area.

A feasibility study report has been completed by a Chinese company according to the understanding with the government.

The company continues to pay close attention and has strong willingness to take part in the project. I will be very glad to see any progress.

China Communication Construction was supposed to be doing feasibility on the bridge to Gozo. Has China’s involvement been dropped because of the decision to have a tunnel instead?

The Malta-Gozo bridge project is another key cooperation project in the field of transportation infrastructure listed in the MOU between the two governments. According to the information that I have, China Communications Construction Company Ltd has completed the feasibility study report on the bridge project and submitted a preliminary design for the undersea tunnel project to the Maltese government. China Communication Construction has been closely following the project and is very willing to continue to participate in it. The company, which has successfully completed the construction of the No. 6 Dry Dock and the Marsaxlokk breakwater, keeps a good construction record in Malta, and the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge project which is under construction by the company is a world-class cross-sea bridge and submarine tunnel project, with its construction standards and quality at the world’s top level.

China was also going to help Malta with social housing, with the latest report saying that 3,000 units are needed. Is anything happening?

According to the MOU between the two governments, both parties shall seek concrete projects, including housing construction projects, to support the other side’s efforts to improve its infrastructure. We pay close attention to possible opportunities of cooperation in this area. I’m sure Chinese companies will be interested if there’s any potential project in this field.

Former Ambassador Cao Jinbiao had mentioned that Hainan Airlines was interested in Air Malta at one stage – but it appears to have backed off at an early stage. What happened and is there any chance that the interest will be renewed?

In my opinion, there is plenty of room for bilateral cooperation in the civil aviation field, and the willingness of cooperation from both sides is strong. The Chinese government encourages and provides support to enterprises from both countries to seek opportunities in this field in accordance with their actual needs and business development strategies, as well as international business practices and market principles. I believe, as long as we keep in contact under the principle of equality and mutual benefit, a way of cooperation could be found.

There were problems in the past with visas for Chinese willing to visit Malta after cases of abuse were uncovered. Has the situation improved, given that both sides want to grow the number of Chinese tourists visiting the island? There were only around 5,000 in 2016, although this was much better than the 1,100 that came 10 years ago.

Indeed I did hear some complaints about the long waiting period and relatively complicated documents requirement of Malta’s visa granting procedure for those who came to Malta either on business or private trips. The number of tourists from China to Malta increased continuously during recent years.

I think it’s very important to simplify the procedure of visa granting, in order to further strengthen the friendship between the two countries by facilitating the travelling of citizens of one country to the other, and to bring economic benefits to both sides by further promoting the bilateral cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade and tourism. I do hope that Malta can adopt a more simplified and faster visa granting procedure, as many other EU countries have already done.

China has been ‘restructuring’ its foreign sovereign debt holdings. It holds the second largest tranche of US Treasury paper – as at October 2016, $1,115.7 billion. What are the implications of reducing it on the US economy? Is the reduction a subtle way of warning the US not to tinker with trade policy?

According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China, China’s reduction of the US Treasury bonds it holds is just a small tactical adjustment following the principle of market-oriented professional investment operation. Due to its ratings, market depth, liquidity and risk-return characteristics, US Treasury bonds are viewed by many other countries as the most important investment targets in the international financial market. It’s normal for China to dynamically adjust its holdings of US Treasury bonds from time to time in consideration of some short-term factors such as the Federal Reserve rate and the Treasury prices. There’s no need to overinterpret.

Chinese investment is sometimes viewed with scepticism about its real motives. Why?

Firstly I would like to mention that China starts its overseas investment relatively late. China’s outward investment maintains a good trend of development and grew rapidly since 2010, especially in recent years.

From January to November 2016, Chinese non-financial overseas direct investment totalled $161.7 billion, an increase of 55.3 per cent year on year.

China’s non-financial direct investment to EU totalled $70.69 billion, up by 13.2 per cent comparing with the same period last year.

Till the end of 2015, the stock position of China’s overseas direct investment was $1,097.86 billion, 80 per cent of which was in developing economies. EU was China’s largest investment destination among developed economies, followed by the US.