I recently received a phone call from Malta’s Ambassador to China, John Aquilina. His voice revealed signs of joy and excitement.

“Reno,” he told me. “Prosit. You made it. I have just launched the Maltese food festival at the Minzu Hotel. Malta is enjoying a lot of exposure through this festival.”

“John,’’ I replied, “I do not do things alone. For this festival to take place I had many other people helping me, including you.’’

With regards to the relations between the people of Malta and China, I dream, I work hard, and achieve. 

Organising a Maltese food festival in China was not easy. I tried and failed many times to convince our best chefs to leave their work in Malta, without getting paid, to travel with me to China for two weeks to cook Maltese dishes.

My father used to tell me: “If you want to enter the farm, first make friends with the dog.’’ This is what I did in this case.

Former University rector Juanito Camilleri appointed me as a member of the Institute for Tourism, Travel & Culture. The present rector Alfred Vella not only confirmed this appointment, but also urged me to use my experience in tourism to inject more enthusiasm in this institute, which during the last years could, in the view of many, have performed better. 

I became a close friend of one of the board members, Paulino Schembri, visiting senior lecturer at this institute. He passes his experience to chefs to become master chefs.

When I asked him for help, he delivered. He convinced Jimmy Aquilina, Michael Cauchi, Aaron Degabriele and Ramon Muscat, four of Malta’s best chefs, to accept an invitation I had from Minzu Hotel, one of Beijing’s top hotels, to organise a Maltese Food Festival. 

This event was launched after many weeks of hard work. The Malta-China Friendship society is a voluntary non-funded organisation. Therefore, I value the financial support from Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Malta Tourism Authority.

The last day of the festival was March 31.  

I chose this day for a reason. On that day, 47 years ago the late prime minister Dom Mintoff landed in China. He was the first Western European leader to visit China, which had just been accepted in the United Nations.

With regards to the relations between the people of Malta and China, I dream, I work hard, and achieve

This was one month after the visit to US President Richard Nixon.

The Chinese gave Mintoff a greater welcome. They wanted to convey a message: they were determined to help Malta change its economic dynamics from one based on military spending to peaceful means. 

They recognised Mintoff’s vision that in seven years, he wanted to change Malta from an instrument of war into an instrument of peace. This year Malta celebrated its 40th anniversary of Freedom Day.

I do not expect any reward or payment for the days and weeks of hard work I dedicated to this event. The Chinese government has already showed its appreciation for my 45 years promoting relations between the Maltese and the Chinese.

On September 8, 2015, a day before my birthday, they gave me the prestigious Magnolia Award. I was the only European to claim the award that year. 

That for me is enough. I have never sought to make money from the decades of promoting relations between China and Malta.

Under the Mintoff administration, I have served my country as minister of tourism, chairman of the investment Finance Bank,  and chairman of the monitoring board of Malta’s largest construction project – the Marsaxlokk container terminal, where I worked day and night with the Chinese. 

I was also chairman of two state companies that were almost bankrupt and turned them into profitable enterprises. When Alfred Sant was prime minister, he appointed me chairman of Transport Authority where I made certain reforms that survive to this day. 

All these achievements gave me a lot of satisfaction. However, nothing makes me more happy than giving my time and dedication as a volunteer to promote relations between Malta and China. 

This food festival was one of my dreams. It became a reality.

Reno Calleja is a former Labour minister and president of the Malta-China Friendship Society.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece