The Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Kolkata held a reception for welcoming the new Consul General Zha Liyou and celebrating 2019 Spring Festival at Oberoi Grand on 27 January 2019.
Over 500 people were present including Mr. Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha; Mr. Nadimul Hoque, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha; Mr. Manmeet Singh Goindi, Director of Netaji Subhas Eastern Center, Sports Authority of India; Prof. Maria Fernandes, member of the West Bengal Commission for Woman and Senior Vice President of the West Bengal TMC Minority Cell; Mr. Chen Yaohua, Chairman of All India Chinese Association; members from the local Chinese community; staff members of the Chinese companies in Eastern India and invited Indian friends.
Consul General Zha Liyou welcomed all guests to attend the reception and extended festival greetings and best wishes to all. He said it's a great honor to be the fifth Chinese Consul General in Kolkata in the year when the Chinese people would celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and Indian friends celebrated the 70th Republic Day. He pointed out the Chinese government has always attached great importance to relations between China and India. Last year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi met four times to reach very important consensus on furthering the partnership between the two great nations. State and Province relation is an important pillar of China-India relation. As the fifth Chinese Consul General in Kolkata, he would continue to push forward cultural and people-to-people exchanges, economic and trade cooperation, friendly connections between states and provinces and sister-city relations, and provide high-quality and efficient consular services to overseas Chinese so as to implement consensus reached by the two leaders.
Mr. Ray, Mr. Pande and Ms. Fernandes and other friends present congratulated Consul General Mr. Zha Liyou on assuming office, extended festival greetings to Chinese people, expressed appreciation for the work done by Chinese Consulate in promoting China-India relations and serving overseas Chinese, and promised they would make due contributions to strengthening cooperation and exchanges between states and provinces of China and India.
Kolkata lion dance group and Inner Mongolia Happy Chinese New Year art troupe put on wonderful performances that were warmly welcomed by the guests.