Remarks at The Hand-Over Ceremony of The
Scoreboards in the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium
4 of October, 2011
The Honorable Stephen Lashley, Minister of Family, Culture, Sports and Youth,
Ms. Farnum, Permanent Secretary in the same Ministry,
Ms. Lillian Rose, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Gymnasium Ltd.,
Foreign Service Officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade,
Mr. Yao, General Manager of ChinaState (Barbados),
Members of the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Barbados,
Friends of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen:
First of all I want to thank sincerely MinisterStephen Lashley for being with us today at this simple but for me thrilling ceremony whereby I’ve got the honor to declare, in the name of the Chinese government, the completion of this economic and technical cooperation project between our two countries, consistent of the installation of a brand new, state of the artset of electronic scoreboards in the Gymnasium Sir Garfield Sobers, in replacement of the old ones that had become deficient in its functions since 2010 and that, at the request of the Barbados government and through consultations between the two sides, my government decided to provide a grant to upgrade. Right decision indeed, especially when you see what a cutting-edge, ipad user minister we have in charge of this portfolio and you become aware of the great need to keep up with the time.
I’m extremely pleased to do this todaybecause this Gymnasium is, as known by many, a milestone in the annals of the strong China-Barbados friendship and co-operation ties. Since it was built as early as in 1994,as a momentous economic and technical co-operation project between our two countries, it has played an outstanding role in favor of a wide range of cultural activities, for the benefit of the Barbados’ people, especially the youth, which is a clear sign that our bilateral co-operation is truly beneficial for the people, as it should be.
In this regard I myself can’t help but recollect quite a number of exciting, fun moments and scenes that attest very well to the good use and social meaning this building has: like when I saw how school kids wildly cheered the Chinese Guangdong Province Artistic Troupe’s performance right here; how as awesome an international sport event as the International Female Boxing Championship took place successfully right here, right in the aftermath of the Tropical Storm Thomas; and how my then barely 5 year old daughter was literally transported into the dreamy world of fairy tale created, right here again, by a Disneyland show. No one can blame me for coming to love, even in a biased manner, this place.
And surely no one could blame our top state leaders when they paid great attention as well to this place when Prime Minister the Honorable Freundel Stuart, along with his Chinese counterpart, presided over the signing of the agreement between the two governments on the scoreboards repair and upgrade project, during the former’s highly successful official visit to China in early June this year.
Now I’m delighted and, to be honest, sort of relieved, to see that this highest level attention drawing project is done and well done. The joint inspection duly conducted by engineers from China and Barbados has shown satisfactory results as related to the original design standards and requirements being all met, so that we do have a quality work to be handed over to the Barbados government and people, especially, again, to its youth, for them to be able to enjoy, through theseLED True Color and Two-Color stuff, a whole array of games and shows in a more vivid and thrilling way.
Itherefore appreciate wholeheartedly all the stakeholders involved in this project, in particular to ChinaState (Barbados)’s management and workers for a job well done, as well as to the Board of the Gymnasium Ltd. for their warm and efficient collaboration. I hope that this project can prove to be yet another demonstration of the Chinese government’s strong and unswerving commitment to the South-South co-operation among fellow developing nations like China and Barbados and serve well, albeit modestly, the interests of Barbados social progress.
Thanks again to everyone for this wonderful opportunity.