News Analysis: Maldives president lauds China's foreign policy

President of the Maldives Mohamed Waheed, who isscheduled to attend the China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi in West China early this month,has lauded China for its policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of othercountries.

In an interview with Xinhua, Waheed said that China, unlike other influential countries,looks at international affairs of small countries like Maldives from a unique perspective. "China is emerging as one of the superpowers now. In that sense, it will inevitably playa significant role in world affairs," Waheed said.

The president of Indian Ocean archipelago also thanked China for the influx of Chinesetourists to his country.

"We have a big number of Chinese tourists who are coming to Maldives. China is thebiggest tourist market for Maldives. We are really happy that Chinese tourists chooseto visit Maldives," Waheed said.

By the end of June 2012, a total of 91,148 Chinese tourists have already visitedMaldives, which is a 13.1 percent growth. A total of 17,809 arrivals from China wererecorded for the month of June alone, representing 30 percent of the total marketshare and a 15.6 percent growth compared to June 2011

President Waheed said that Chinese tourists coming to Maldives are just following thefootsteps of ancient Chinese travelers who came to Maldives and "who became veryimportant links between our country and China."

Waheed said many works have still to be done to strengthen the ties between the twocountries.

"We need to promote knowledge about Maldives in China. It is important that we bringmore information about our country to potential Chinese travelers to Maldives,"Waheedsaid.

He also highlighted the importance of expanding trade and commerce with China. "China is a huge market and a lot of innovations and developments are going on there.We would like to expand our trade and commerce with China like all other countries inthe world," Waheed said.

According to Waheed, Maldives has benefited from Chinese companies that were ableto provide construction services in the island nation. "Chinese companies are now inMaldives building housing projects and other infrastructure projects and we are hopingto expand them, " he said. "Many of our business people are now traveling to Chinaand they are looking at possibilities for expanding trade and economic ties, " Waheedsaid.

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Waheed who took over the Maldives presidency on Feb.7 this year, described his plansto build the economy of the island nation by attracting foreign investors, including thosefrom state-owned Chinese companies. "Our investment climate is good. Maldives is onecountry where you could repatriate entire profit. There is no foreign exchange control,and company registration is easy. So it is good place for investment," Waheed said.

He said struggling with the climate changes, Maldives is forced to think about newareas to develop while fighting to protect beaches from unfavorable weather conditions. "Our ground water is being contaminated due to beach erosion. So we have to invest inthe production of safe drinking water, provide basic services like sewerage andelectricity," the president said.

The Maldives has decided to promote new rules for renewable energy and China is animportant partner in this endeavor."China has cutting edge technology for this. It isproducing low cost solar panels. I am optimistic that we can corporate with China in thisarea," Waheed said.

China and the Maldives established diplomatic relations on Oct. 14, 1972. From thenon, friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries have constantlydeveloped through top-level exchange of visits by officials of both countries.