On April 14, 2011, the Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during their meeting in Sanya, Hainan Province of China, officially launched the "Year of China-India Exchange". As an important part of exchange programmes, the "Experience China-Sichuan Week in India" will be kicked off on April 25, 2011 in India.

China and India are two important close neighbors with long history of friendly exchanges. The recent years have witnessed healthy and steady development of bilateral relations. Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao's visit to India and the Indian President Pratibha Patil's visit to China in 2010 were both successful and fruitful, and made positive contribution to the development of our strategic partnership relations. Two countries also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties. Last year, exchanges and cooperation in various fields between the two sides have been expanding continuously. The China-Indian relations have gone beyond the bilateral scope and acquired global and strategic significance which is not only beneficial to two countries but also conducive to the world peace and development.

Sichuan, known as the Land of Abundance, is famous for its hard-working people, beautiful landscape, rich natural resources and fast growing economy. Lying in south west China, its unique geographic location gives Sichuan one more advantage to serve as pioneer in west part of China in developing cooperative relations with India and south Asia.

During the Sichuan Week, it will showcase the unique features of the province including the world renowned Sichuan cuisine and wine, colourful exhibition and beautiful and unique cultural performances. I am sure all of them will be enjoyed and appreciated by Indian friends and friends form other countries. Besides, the Economic and Trade Promotion Seminar and Tourism Promotion event will also be held during the Sichuan Week, providing a platform for business people from both sides to interact with each other and look for partners to cooperate.

I believe that the Sichuan Week in India will further promote the people-to-people understanding, build mutual trust, enhance the economic and trade cooperation and expand cultural exchanges between Sichuan and India in particular and to the two countries and two peoples as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the "Experience China-Sichuan Week in India" a complete success. May the friendship and mutual beneficial cooperation between China and India grow stronger and stronger.