TAMATAVE, Madagascar, June 19-- More than 4,000 tonnes of emergency food aid from the Chinese government was received by Madagascar's president Hery Rajaonarimampianina on Monday at the port of Tamatave. The food aid is hailed as the concretization of the commitments between the Chinese and Madagascar's governments signed on March 27, 2017 during the official visit of Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina to China. "Only two months after my meetings with the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, we are already here with a concrete act that is very symbolic because it is for the victims of drought and the victims of cyclone. It is a symbolic act because the will was realized in a concrete act in a very short time," Rajaonarimampianina said in his speech during the ceremony of the donation release. The president listed some of China's contributions in his country, from infrastructures to the presence of Chinese medical team in Madagascar, and expressed his confidence in Madagascar attaining food self-sufficiency through the cultivation of Chinese hybrid rice. "Following the Malagasy Government's call after the drought and the passage of cyclone Enawo to meet humanitarian needs of the affected population and to support Madagascar in responding to this alarming situation, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Rice food aid as an urgent donation worth 30 million yuan to the Malagasy government, or about 14 billion Ariary," the Chinese Ambassador to Madagascar Yang Xiaorong said during the donation ceremony. |