Delegation of Reunion Association of Chinese Businessmen Visits China

At the invitation of the CPAFFC, a goodwill delegation of the Reunion Association of Chinese Businessmen (RACB) headed by Jacques Law-Ye paid a visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Wenzhou from April 20 to 28, 2005. Guo Dongpo, chairman of the Committee of the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese Affairs of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, met with and entertained the delegation. The delegation paid official calls on the Office of the Overseas Chinese Affairs of the State Council, the Peking University Health Science Centre, the Overseas Edition of People’s Daily, the Beijing Association of Women Entrepreneurs, the Shanghai Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the Shanghai City Planning Bureau and the Wenzhou Import and Export Corporation, and visited the Beijing Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, the Shanghai Three-Gun Group Co. and the Shanghai Museum of History.

The Reunion Island situated to the southeast of Africa on the Indian Ocean is an overseas province of France. The RACB was founded in 1916, most of its members being personages of economic and trade circles as well as government officials, doctors, lawyers and teachers recruited in recent years. The Association gets its revenue mainly from membership dues and real estates rents. As early as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it raised money to support China. After the founding of new China, it provided funds for eliminating illiteracy in China’s poor areas. This time during its stay in Beijing, the delegation donated 50,000 RMB yuan to the Peking University Health Science Centre to help 10 students with financial difficulties to complete their study.

During his visit in China, Jacques Law-Ye, president of the RACB, said, they, as the overseas Chinese of the third generation in Reunion, are proud of China’s history of civilization of several thousand years and rich culture. But, it is a pity that due to lack of Chinese language education on the Island, most of the overseas Chinese there, except those of the older generation, can’t speak Chinese. With China’s reform and opening up to the outside world, the trend of communicating in Chinese is becoming stronger. As the descendants of the Chinese, they are more eager to learn Chinese language. Hence, the delegation paid an official call on the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs of the State Council, asking to take part in the medium and short-term Chinese language training courses in the Beijing Chinese Language and Culture College affiliated to the Office. They said that they would send their children to study Chinese in the college, which fully showed their love for their motherland and memory of their ancestors.

Jacques Law-Ye said, we always hold that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is a province of China. China, a country with vast territory and abundant resources, has prosperous economy and is developing rapidly. The overseas Chinese fervently hope that the motherland will be reunified and that the country is prosperous and the people live in peace.

Jacques Law-Ye said, one of the aims of the delegation’s visit to China is to explore the way to participate in China’s economic construction. China’s economy that has developed rapidly in the past 15 years has huge potentials and bright prospects. During its stay in Beijing, the delegation visited the Hanwang Technology Co. Ltd. in the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park. As a computer salesman, Mr. Law-Ye is preparing to introduce the Automatic Chinese Speech Recognition Input System to Reunion so as to popularize Chinese language with scientific and technological methods. When the delegation paid an official call on the Shanghai Branch of the CCPIT, he said, Reunion holds various kinds of fairs every year and they welcome Shanghai to send delegations to participate in them. In the Shanghai Planning Bureau, the delegation got some knowledge about future infrastructure construction in Shanghai, further strengthening their confidence in investing in Shanghai. The delegation also expressed their satisfaction with the investment environment in Shanghai and hoped to increase contacts with the Shanghai business circles.

The delegation paid a call on the Wenzhou Import and Export Corporation. Jacques Law-Ye said, in Reunion many light industrial products imported from Europe are actually made in China, but their prices are over 30 percent higher than those directly imported from China, which makes it hard for people to accept. As businessmen of overseas Chinese, they will promote direct trade between Reunion and China.

The delegation many times talked about promoting Chinese tourists to travel in Reunion. The Island with an area of only 2,512 square kilometers and a population of 710,000 has very beautiful scenery. Particularly active volcanoes are rarely seen in the region. Now China is preparing to open an air route to Reunion, but there are still difficulties for Chinese tourists to get a visa for visiting the island. The delegation said that the RACB would consult with relevant departments in Reunion to help solve the problems.