for example Japan or EU， we will have to pay some taxes and tariffs. So we are looking at alternatives markets for fish exports， like China. The bilateral agreements guarantee the zero tariff for Maldivian fish， however， China’s high subsidy for the local fishery market makes our fish difficult to be competitive. Even so， we are active in exploiting China’s potential market.

Now we are looking for companies that are intend to import fish from Maldives. Worth mentioning， Maldives has lots of uninhabited islands and the shallow seas are suitable for fish cultivation， these resources are boundless and apt to be made good use of.

Efforts to attract Chinese tourists

Q: Last year， for the first time，

China became the largest tourist generating country to Maldives. What are the existing and potential problems between China and Maldives’ tourism cooperation?

A:Last week we had Beijing interna

tional tourism expo here. We had a group of Maldivian travel agencies and representatives came here to participate the BIT， manager directors of Maldivian marketing and PR companies are looking for tourism promotion and investment.

We’re glad to know that Maldives is on the top list of Chinese young couple to have honeymoon， however， for some people， Maldives is very boring. We would like them to consider Maldives as not once in a time holiday station; we would like Chinese people to have more enjoyable and memorable stay， so we are considering having more mandarin-speaking staffs， more and better Chinese food. We also discussed how to make Mal more exciting， for example， adding mahjong and other entertainment activities.

As far as I know， Chinese people don’t like too much outdoor activities， especially the challenging ones like diving and surfing， but I know that Chinese divers like Maldives， this is a market again.

China contributes a lot to SAARC

Q: Maldives will host the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) summit this November. What’s the theme and what role of China and Maldives’s relationship in promoting regional cooperation?

A:SAARC is a regional organization among the eight countries of South Asia. This will be the third summit that we are hosting in Maldives， but it’s the first SAARC summit that to be held south of the equator. Apart from that， this year the theme is “building the bridges”， essentially what we mean is that linking the countries better， with more frequent connect activities between these countries. The transport minister has recently decided to start such programs， first to have ferry service between India， Sri Lanka and Maldives which generates more economic interaction and trade improvement. Bangladesh， Pakistan， Sri Lanka， India and Maldives， we are all connected by the sea， while the northern countries like Afghanistan， Bhutan and Nepal are connected by the land， when the whole is connected， it’s going to have major impact on developing our economies.

Of course， we are looking forward China’s participation， we hope that the foreign minister or the senior leader would participate in the summit. China is an observer of SAARC， we are very thankful to Chinese government for providing assistance to host the summit such as equipment and logistics. In fact， next month in Kunming， there is a meeting of SAARC’s member countries organized by CIIS， China institute of international studies， they are going to have a seminar， think-tank people and economist will academically discuss the issues on cooperation. China is playing a very active role in strengthen the cooperation.

Pingpong promotes communications

Q: What about this year’s pingpong match? How is it going?

A:(Laugh) I’m glad to talk about it! In 2008， embassy of Maldives launched the first diplomats’ pingpong match. From then on， we have this match every year. This is the fourth time， our staffs and the people who have been organized are familiar with everything so we’ve done it in a routine way. The march was held on June 25th at Beijing stadium. Last year we invited Ms. Deng Yaping， the famous pingpong athlete， to start the first pingpong ball; this year Qi Baoxiang， also a famous pingpong athlete， started the first ball. About 120 diplomats from more than 60 countries’ embassies participated in the match. In addition， diplomats from China Foreign Ministry including spokesman Hong Lei and Song Yuejin from Protocol Department also took part in. we have lots of matches including team events， individuals; besides， we have lottery activities that 2 lucky player each can get 2 flight tickets from Beijing to Male. It’s great pleasure for me to do this and we are trying to institutionalize this by having a diplomat’s pingpong club which we can have more communications by friendly match.