On the morning of Tuesday, 23 of Februray, a hand-over ceremony took place at the Government Office Complex in Worrens, St. Michael, in relation to a grant of office equipments from the Government of China to the Government of Barbados. The Hon. Christopher Sinckler, Minister of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Develompment and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and H. E. Wei Qiang, Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to Barbados, accompanied by their respective teams, attended the ceremony.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Ambassador Wei said that China-Barbados relations got greatly promoted in recent years,thanks to the exchange of high-level visits between the two states, which had been highly productive both in terms of political consensus and in multidimensional functional cooperation between the two sides. One of the concrete results of this kind of cooperation, he indicated, was showcased by the grant, agreed upon by both countries' top leaders on occasion of Prime Minister Thompson's visit to China, through an exchange of letters between the two Governments signed by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barbados, the Hon. Christopher Sinckler, along with his Chinese counterpart, on May 6th, 2008.

Ambassador Wei informed that in order to materialize this grant agreement between the Chinese and Barbadian leaders, the departments concerned of the two countries engaged in friendly consultations to get a list of the required goods completed in September 2009; and, upon the confirmation by the Government of Barbados, the Chinese side started immediately and completed within two months the whole work of bidding, collecting, packing, transporting and shipping of those goods, for them to arrive in good order in Bridgetown on February 10th this year.

Ambassador Wei pointed out that although the volume of this grant from the Chinese Government was not much, it was nevertheless a true testimony of the genuine willingness of that Government to further strengthen the friendly ties of cooperation with Barbados within the context of its coherent policy of pushing forward constantly the unity and cooperation among all the fellow developing countries. He hoped that those office goods would provide some help and convenience to the quarters concerned in Barbados for their work.

Ambassador Wei took the opportunity to thank all those who had been involved and collaborated in the effort to make a reality of this grant project, another token, according to him, of the strong bond of friendship, understanding, trust and cooperation between the two countries.