Distinguished Guests,

Dear Friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today is China's Qingming Festival, a traditional day for Chinese people to commemorate their lost relatives. We come here to pay our tribute to and remembrance for the Chinese experts who gave their lives in assisting Rwanda for this country's construction and development.

China and Rwanda established diplomatic relations in 1971. In the past decades, our two countries have been maintaining brotherly friendship and carrying out fruitful cooperation in various fields such as trade, agriculture, health, education, construction and technology. China has provided a lot of selfless aid to Rwanda. Many Chinese experts traveled far across the oceans and set foot on the land of Rwanda, and they worked hand in hand with the industrious Rwandan people for her development especially in the field of infrastructure construction. They had made great contributions to Rwanda's economic and social development, and also to the friendship and cooperation between China and Rwanda. Unfortunately, some of them sacrificed their lives here and rested in peace in the land far away from their homeland. But the people of their motherland and the people of Rwanda have never forgotten them, never forgotten the great deeds they had done here, and would cherish their memory forever.

Let us inherit the will of our martyrs and make our contributions to the development of Sino-Rwanda cooperation and traditional friendship!

May the souls of Chinese martyrs be in peace!

Thank you.