BRATISLAVA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Recalling his term in China as Slovak ambassador, Dusan Bella highlighted his visits to the Zhongjie Friendship Farm in northern China, saying the change there over the past decades has reflected the country's rapid development.
During a recent interview with Xinhua on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Bella said he admires the Chinese people for the country's rapid development over the past 75 years, and the Zhongjie Friendship Farm serves as a good example in this regard.
"Zhongjie" is the Chinese abbreviation of "Sino-Czechoslovakia." Founded over 60 years ago in Cangzhou, northern China's Hebei Province, the farm was gifted around 700 sets of agricultural machinery in 1956 by then Czechoslovak Republic. Experts from then Czechoslovakia were also dispatched to the farm to train Chinese farmers.
The PRC was a poor country in its early years, but the Chinese nation has worked very hard, and the reform and opening-up policies that China has adopted since 1978 have also strongly boosted its growth, Bella said.
Thanks in part to this international cooperation, the farm has significantly expanded and upgraded. In 2013, it was turned into the Zhongjie Industrial Park. Five years later, the China-CEEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Cooperation Zone was established there.
Bella had made multiple visits to the farm during his tenure in China from 2017 to 2022. He was amazed to find out the Chinese people had turned the farm from a barren piece of land into a modern town with several universities and a lot of companies and industries.
This project serves as an example of how China is evolving, he said.
The former ambassador expressed his belief that China would continue to advance and set an excellent example for other Asian countries. The nation is forging deep friendships and cooperation with countries around the world, he said.
This year also marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Slovakia. The former Czechoslovak Republic, which later separated into Czechia and Slovakia, was among the first countries to recognize Beijing shortly after the founding of the PRC.
Hailing the development of Slovakia-China relations over the past 75 years, Bella said China is a global leader in areas such as new energy and artificial intelligence, and Slovakia can strengthen its future cooperation with China in these fields. ■
