Ladies and Gentleman, Dear Guests, since last February I live in Beijing and work for China Radio International, originally I‘m from Poland. A country of about 40 million citizens and for over 10 years a member of European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Poland's economy is the 8th largest in EU. It's the biggest country among the Central and Eastern Europe. Poland was one of the very first countries which established diplomatic relations with the New China. Bilateral relations have long been very close, and that fact has been confirmed in 2011, when presidents Komorowski and Hu Jintao signed the agreement lifting partnership to the strategic level and during last state visit to Poland taken by Chairman Xi Jinping when both leaders lift ties to comprehensive strategic partnership. We are proud that we belong to the group of states with such a friendly relations with China. What impresses especially the Poles is scale of infrastructure investments in China. Despite the fact that my country has been developing dynamically for last 25 years, we‘re observing Chinese innovations and pro-ecology projects with a great admiration. What amazes me personally is momentum of developing of high-speed railways within entire country, even between very remote regions of China. Let me give you an example. Since 2 nd World War polish capital city – Warsaw has been connected with southern city called Zakopane. There‘s a railway, less than 400 km length, but journey takes you at least 6 hours! Therefore, each tourist of hundreds of thousands of polish visitors to China is so impressed while travelling from Beijing to Shanghai in less than 5 hours – when distance is almost 1.500 km. Polish government is counting on Chinese investments and cooperation, therefore Poland decided to become a member of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank from the very beginning. Poland - as a country traditionally very friendly to China - hopes that thanks to partnership with the bank level of infrastructure investments will constantly grow. Another example, which does a great impression is project of the world's highest located railway connecting Beijing and Lhasa. Its length is around 4000 km in very rough scenery and yet the train maintains the average speed 100 km/h. The highest station is situated 5000 meters above sea level. Personally, I must admit that since I moved to Beijing my great desire is to travel on this train from Beijing to Lhasa. The way of developing of the Tibetan Railway shows how much importance for Chinese government is environmental protection in Tibet. Initiatives to protect rivers, plants and animal species are carried out on a very large scale. It's possible also thanks to the innovation in infrastructure projects and modern engineering. Visiting Tibet we can see easily how much conditions in areas like health service or education have changed. Thanks to those programs access to highly specialized medical services is much greater than in the past. It should also be noted that Poland is actively supporting the implementation of the "One Belt, One Road" project, and is the biggest partner of China in "16 + 1" forum - which links China and 16 central and eastern european countries. At the end of June official state visit to Poland has been taken by Chairman Xi Jinping - it was next meeting between Chinese and Polish leaders within last years. At the end of 2015 the newly elected Polish President Andrzej Duda visited China. A few weeks ago, the first direct train under united brand – called China Railway Express - arrived to Warsaw. It transported containers with goods for European markets. Establishing of cargo railway from Chengdu in Sichuan to ?ód? in central Poland is a great achievement of China-Poland cooperation in logistics area. I hope that further developing of friendship between our nations will bring benefits to both parties, so Chinese innovative technology will be used in Poland more often. Thank you.

(an Kacper Mroz, Journalist, Polish Department of China Radio International)