 Building A Harmonious and Prosperous Asia for AllThrough Comprehensive Cooperation |
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Distinguished Guests,Friends,Ladies and Gentlemen,
In this blooming season of spring, we have brought together in this pretty town of Boao so many friends from around Asia and the world. On behalf of the Chinese Government, let me begin by warmly congratulating this meeting and expressing our sincere welcome to all our friends.
Coming to this once-a-year gathering is a highly meaningful thing for all of us. Here, we draw plans for Asia-wide development, explore the path to Asian cooperation and rejuvenation, and chart out the future for a peaceful and prosperous Asia. Our presence here is just another testimony to the fervent desire of Asian countries for still closer and win-win cooperation.
Right now, Asia is faced with a historic opportunity for development. With peace and development remaining the dominant theme of the times, pursuing peace, stability, development and cooperation has become the shared aspiration of all Asian peoples. Against the backdrop of surging economic globalization, many Asian countries have succeeded in restructuring their economies, accelerated their industrial upgrading, increased the level of science and technology and sustained a sound development momentum. In the process of regional integration, the Asian countries have found themselves increasingly interdependent with closer dialogue and coordination, visibly improved capacity to fend off risks and a burgeoning regional network of cooperation. All this has provided a solid groundwork and favorable conditions for Asia's peace, stability, development and cooperation.
In the meantime, we must not overlook the numerous difficulties and challenges still facing Asia. Disputes of both past and present are eroding the mutual trust of certain countries. Traditional and non-traditional security threats, ranging from regional hot-spots and terrorism to transnational crimes are intertwined to render Asia insecure. Other problems, such as ecological degradation, natural disasters, communicable diseases and widening wealth gap are also drags on Asia's development. It remains a formidable task for Asian countries to maintain peace and stability in the region and achieve their common prosperity.
With both opportunities and challenges in our face, we the Asian countries must get along with the tide of history, seize the opportunities and work in unison, so as to blaze a path of win-win cooperation to build a harmonious Asia where countries coexist in amity politically, conduct equal-footed and mutually beneficial cooperation economically, trust one another with close coordination on security matters, and complement each other culturally. To that end, I suggest that we the Asian countries should endeavor in the following aspects:
First, we should endeavor to maintain peace and stability. Peace is the basic prerequisite for development. It is imperative for us to seek common ground while shelving differences and live with one another in harmony on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. We should discard the Cold War mentality and cultivate a security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation. We should properly handle outstanding issues left over by history and current conflicts of interests through dialogue and consultation, taking into account the interests and concerns of both sides.
Second, we should endeavor to promote common development. Development is the ultimate solution to all kinds of problems. We should always make development our top priority and constantly improve our people's livelihoods. Development should aim to reinforce one another and achieve win-win results. It should make countries open, rather than closed to one another. It should provide a level playing field, rather than allowing countries to undercut each other. It should give full scope to the mutual complementarity of each other's strength, rather than advancing one's interest at the expense of the other.
Third, we should endeavor to push forward comprehensive cooperation. Cooperation is a key avenue to common development. We should take trade and economic cooperation as the engine to bring along cooperation in the political, security, social, cultural and other fields. And we should start with economic integration and gradually put in place a substantive, wide-ranging and institutionalized framework of regional cooperation.
Fourth, we should respect diversity. Asia has valued cultural harmony since ancient times. Differences in ideology, social system, religion or culture should not stand in the way of communications, but rather become a driving force for greater interaction among Asian countries. We must respect the right of every country to choose its own path of development and oppose discrimination and biases. We should increase mutual understanding through exchanges and make progress together through mutual emulation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the past 20 years and more since introducing reform and opening-up programs, China has made a remarkable progress in economic development, resulting in a historic leap forward in social productivity and overall national strength. In 2004, China's GDP reached US$1.65 trillion with a foreign trade volume topping US$1.15 trillion and foreign exchange reserves of over US$600 billion. A socialist market economy has been basically put in place. With a per capita GDP of more than US$1,000, the Chinese are on the whole enjoying a life of moderate prosperity along with progress in all social undertakings in the country. Nevertheless, we are soberly aware that we still have a long and up-hill journey ahead as we try to modernize China given its huge population, inadequate economic base and highly uneven development.
Right now, China is at a critical juncture of its modernization drive. Experiences of other countries suggest that the period in which a country's per capita GDP rises from US$1,000 to US$3,000 is often blessed with immense steam and potential for development and at the same time fraught with formidable difficulties and risks. The world has presented both success stories and bitter failures when it comes to development within such a period. Some countries, thanks to right policies and measures, achieved rapid economic growth accompanied with social stability and progress. Others suffered from prolonged economic stagnation and social instability because of misguided policies and measures. To get ourselves better prepared for all the problems associated with this crucial period of development, we have put forward a scientific concept of development that makes people the top priority and encourages an all-round, coordinated and sustainable development, and seen to it that the concept be earnestly acted upon in all aspects of China's socio-economic life.
The scientific concept of development requires that we pay close attention to better quality and efficiency of economic growth while focusing on our central task of economic development and ensuring a fairly high growth rate. We will press ahead with our reform and opening-up programs on the basis of ensuring a balanced development between urban and rural areas, between different regions, between economic and social progress, between man and nature, and between domestic development and opening-up to the outside world. We must adhere to the"people first" approach, unite with all forces that can be united with, give scope to all positive factors and galvanize all creative power of society. We should properly handle the interests of different sectors so that all the people can share the fruits of reform and development.
To maintain a sustained, healthy, rapid and coordinated economic development, achieve socialist modernization, and build a harmonious and dynamic society with democracy, rule of law, justice, honesty and decency, stability and order, a society where man and nature live as friends in a country like China with its 1.3 billion people is an unprecedented undertaking. We will encounter no few difficulties and problems as we forge ahead, and there are bound to be new challenges. But we are confident in our ability to overcome them and arrive at our set goal triumphantly.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China's development is closely linked with Asia's prosperity. We are committed to developing good-neighborly relationships and partnerships by constantly deepening our friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation with other Asian countries, ensuring a close convergence of our interests with the common interests of all Asian countries and integrating our development with the common development of Asia as a whole. Already the largest importer in Asia, China is now beginning to show its potential as a new major investor and source of outbound tourists. Dedicated to promoting multilateral security cooperation in the region and facilitating peaceful settlement of regional hot-spots, China has made a contribution to peace and stability in the region. China has also contributed its share for regional integration by actively participating in Asia-based regional economic cooperation.
China's development is a peaceful one. Deeply seated in China's history is a cultural tradition that honors promises and promotes harmony among all nations. The humiliation and bullying they were subjected in the past have made the Chinese people cherish all the more dearly their sovereignty, peace and stability. At present, development is of overriding importance. We will stay on the path of peaceful development, devoting all our resources to development. There is neither reason nor possibility for us to threaten anyone. Even if China gets more developed in the future, it will never seek hegemony. This is our solemn pledge that will never change. A stable, open and prosperous China is bound to make even greater contribution to peace and development in Asia.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Building a harmonious and prosperous Asia and making its rejuvenation in the 21st century a reality is the shared goal of all Asian peoples. It is also a challenging task before us. Let us join hands in a best effort for the well-being of all the people in Asia, for peace and prosperity in all Asian countries and for a better future of Asia.
Thank you!
Question: Mr Chairman, My name is Gary Gray from Woodside Energy. I am enjoying your speech and presentation. And in it, you referred to the rapid economic growth of China. Some say that this growth has contributed to the increase in raw material prices, including energy and oil prices. What strategies does China have in place to deal with this issue so that it does not hurt any other economy?
Answer: Energy and resources are a common concern of Asian peoples and also a challenge facing China. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to this issue. With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, its demand for energy also keeps rising. However, it needs noting that China is both a big energy consumers and a big producer. Import has always been a small part in China's total energy consumption. As is known to all, China produced a total of 170 million tons of oil and 1.956 billion tons of coal last year. Our calculation is that the share of imports in China's energy consumption will remain a small fraction by 2020. Therefore, we must rely on domestic supply in addressing the issue of energy and resources. Of course, we will import an appropriate proportion so as to keep pace with the growing demand. To put it more specifically, we plan to do a good job in the following aspects: Firstly, energy conservation. Energy conservation must be given the top priority. We must combine energy conservation with structural readjustments, technological advances and management improvement and implement relevant measures of encouraging and supporting energy conservation so as to foster an energy-conserving society. Secondly, to speed up the readjustment of energy structure. We plan to proceed from two areas. One is to resort to readjustments in industrial structure, product mix and energy consumption structure, technological advances and improvement of returns of energy development and utilization so that the energy demand of national economic development will show a tendency of plummeting. The other is to increase the production of non-coal energy in an orderly manner, make full use of water resources, vigorously develop oil and gas resources, utilize the nuclear energy in a modest manner and vigorously develop recyclable energy such as solar and wind energy. Thirdly, to expand the development of the coal industry. We must give special attention to the safe production of coal, take measures to prevent environmental pollution incurred by coal development and utilization and, under this precondition, increase the capacity of coal production. Fourthly, to develop the clean coal technology, support the development of coal chemical industry and vigorously push forward the industrialization process of coal liquefying technology. China will conduct dialogue and cooperation with other energy producers and consumers. In addressing our own issue of energy production and consumption, we must keep in mind the interests of the region and persist on a path of sustainable and common development.
Question: I am Zhou Furen from China's Xiyang Corporation. Chairman Jia, during your many years working in local governments and in the central government, you have been leading the Chinese economy forward. Today, it has become the consensus among the majority countries in Asia to accelerate the pace of Asian economic integration. As a world power and an important country in Asian economic development, what contributions should China make in creating a harmonious Asia and promoting regional economic integration?
Answer: Regional cooperation is an important part of China's foreign policy toward neighbouring countries. As is known to all, we take an active part in various forms of cooperation in East Asia and in the construction of various bilateral and multilateral free trade areas and continuously deepen dialogues and cooperation with surrounding countries in the security field. China plays an active role in promoting regional cooperation. It is our consistent advocacy that various forms of regional cooperation in Asia should follow the principle of advancing gradually in due order and the principle of openness and inclusiveness and be substantiated and improved gradually. We will continue to follow the line of living in amity and partnership with our neighbours, strengthen communications and cooperation with Asian countries and, in particular, stress the need of building cooperation mechanism and elevating cooperation level, gradually establish a new mechanism of Asian cooperation and jointly move Asian cooperation forward. |
| Source: Boao Forum For Asia |
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| Building A Harmonious and Prosperous Asia for AllThrough Comprehensive Cooperation |
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