Boao, 24 April 2004/4/23
Honorable Guests, Friends, Ladies
and gentlemen,
It gives me
great pleasure to attend the Boao Forum for Asia 2004 Annual
Conference today. Let me begin by extending, on behalf of
the Chinese government, my warmest welcome to all of you
present here.
In the
past few years, with the support of the fellow Asian
countries and the larger international community, the Boao
Forum for Asia has developed steadily, playing an
increasingly prominent role in regional cooperation and
demonstrating to the rest of the world the fervent desire of
the Asian people for a win-win scenario through closer
cooperation.
Coming into
the 21st century, the international situation has continued
to undergo profound and complicated changes. World
multipolarization and economic globalization are progressing
amid twists and turns. Science and technology are advancing
with each passing day. We have before us both development
opportunities that we must seize and grave challenges that
we must deal with. Despite the widespread conflicts and
clashes of interest and increasing numbers of factors of
uncertainty and instability, peace and development remain
the overriding themes of the times. The world needs peace,
countries desire development and people want cooperation.
This has become an irresistible trend of history.
We are glad to see that
Asia has, on the whole, enjoyed stability, with peace,
development and cooperation becoming the mainstream of an
advancing Asia. With concerted efforts, Asian countries have
freed themselves from the shadow of the financial crisis,
overcome the impact of SARS and bird flu, succeeded in
domestic economic restructuring, and quickened the tempo of
industrial upgrading and transformation, promoted a robust
regional cooperation, and increased the capacity to tide
over potential risks. Asia retains its position as one of
the world's most dynamic regions and a key growth point in
global trade. All this gives us much confidence about Asia's
future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Both in history and the present-day
world, a country can emerge victorious from tough
international competition and enjoy faster development only
when it gets along with the tide of the times, seizes the
opportunities for development, blazes a trail suited to its
national conditions and relies on wisdom and resourcefulness
of its own people.
In
the past 25 years, while pressing ahead with reform and
opening up, China has put initially in place a socialist
market economy, an economy that is open to the outside
world. China's productive forces and overall national
strength have been constantly enhanced. With various social
undertakings developing in full swing, the Chinese people as
a whole have made the historical leap from subsistence to
modest prosperity. In the course of 25 years between 1978
and 2003, China's economy grew by an average annual rate of
9.4 percent, with its GDP, foreign tradeand foreign exchange
reserves jumping from 147.3 billion US dollars, 20.6 billion
US dollars and 167 million US dollars to over 1.4 trillion
US dollars, 851.2 billion US dollars and 403.3 billion US
dollars respectively. China now is the world's sixth largest
economy and the fourth largest trader. The reason why China
has produced such tremendous changes is because we have
adhered to the road of building socialism with Chinese
characteristics and persevered in reform and opening-up,
thus galvanizing the Chinese people's initiative, enthusiasm
and creativity.
Though
China has achieved impressive results in its
development,there are still many acute problems, such as
overpopulation, weak economic foundation, underdeveloped
productivity, highly uneven development, and a fairly sharp
contradiction between the country's ecological environment
and natural resources on the one hand andits economic and
social development on the other. China's per capita GDP,
though reaching the record high of 1,000 US dollars last
year, still ranks behind the 100th place in the world. To
make China's modernization program a success and deliver a
prosperous life for all the Chinese people still requires a
long and uphill battle.
We have already set a clear goal for the first 20
years of thiscentury. Namely, in building a well-off society
of a higher standard in an al-round way for the benefit of
well over one billion Chinese people, we will quadruple the
2000 GDP to 4 trillion US dollars with a per capita GDP of
3,000 US dollars, further develop the economy, improve
democracy, advance science and education, enrich culture,
foster greater social harmony and upgrade the texture of
life for the people.
To
achieve this goal, we will continue to follow the guidance
of Deng Xiaoping theory and the important thoughts of the
"Three Represents" and conscientiously act, in an
all-round way, on the concept of people-oriented,
comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development. This
scientific concept of development crystallizes the
successful experience of China's reform, opening-up and
modernization drive in the past 25 years and that of the
other countries in their course of development, and reflects
a newunderstanding of the issue of development by the
Chinese Government and people. We will take economic
development as our top priority, aim ourselves to the
all-round development of man, and follow a development path
characterized by high productivity, affluent life and sound
eco-system by properly balancing urban andrural development,
development among regions, economic and social development,
development of man and nature, and domestic development and
opening to the outside world.
To achieve this goal, we will continue to push
vigorously our reform and opening-up program, concentrating
on building and perfecting our socialist market economy and
making it more dynamicand more open to the outside world.
Taking the initiative in our own hands with independence and
self-reliance in development is animportant experience of
ours. We persevere in reform, because we need to remove the
institutional barriers that impede the development of
productive forces and unleash the dynamism that exist in our
society for development and creativity. In so doing, we
mainly rely on institutional and technological innovation,
on expanding domestic demand and on increasing the
professional aptitude of our citizens. In the meantime, we
firmly stick to our opening-up policy, taking an active part
in international economicand technology cooperation, and
making contribution to China's owndevelopment and the common
development in the world.
On our road to progress, we are still encountering
the multitude of contradictions and problems, and the
various risks and challenges. However, the Chinese people
have the confidence and the capability to overcome all kinds
of hardships and difficulties and make China's modernization
and great rejuvenationa reality.
Ladies and
gentlemen,
China is an
Asian country. China's development is closely related to
Asia's prosperity. China has, and will continue to makea
positive impact on Asia in the area of development.-- A
developing China generates important opportunities for Asia.
As the world's biggest potential market, China has presided
over in the past 25 years a steadily expanding and maturing
market with import growing at an average annual rate of over
15 percent, whichhas made China the third largest importer
globally and the largestimporter in Asia. In 2003, China
imported from the rest of Asia a total of 272.9 billion US
dollars worth of merchandise, up by 42.4percent, with
imports from ASEAN, Japan, ROK and India increasing by over
35 percent. Direct investment in the rest of Asia by
Chinahas risen at an average annual rate of 20 percent in
recent years.In 2003, more than 20 million outbound visits
were made by Chinesenationals, as more and more Chinese
tourists made Asian countries and regions their choice
destinations. With China's development, the size of its
market and its overseas investment will grow even larger and
still more Chinese will travel to the other parts of Asia
for sightseeing, business and visit. China's economy will
integrate still more closely with Asian economy, giving rise
to a new type of partnership characterized by mutual
benefit, mutual complement and mutual assistance.-- China's
development contributes to peace and stability in Asia. A
stable and prosperous China is in itself an important
contribution to peace and stability in Asia. China since
ancient times has had a fine tradition of sincerity,
benevolence, kindness and trust towards the neighbors. The
very purpose of China's foreign policy is to maintain world
peace and promote common development. China always practices
what it preaches. Persisting in building
good-neighborlyrelationships and partnership with the
neighboring countries, we pursue a policy of bringing
harmony, security and prosperity to neighbors and dedicate
ourselves to strengthening mutual trust andcooperation with
the fellow Asian countries, easing up hot spot tensions, and
striving to maintain peace and tranquillity in Asia.
-- China's development
injects fresh vigor to regional cooperation in Asia. China
has been extensively involved in the various mechanisms of
Asia-based regional cooperation, emphasizingits cooperation
and coordination with all the parties and promoting regional
economic integration. China has joined the fellow Asian
countries in discussing the possibility of free tradeareas,
conducting various forms of security dialogues and cementing
cooperation on the bilateral level while promoting regional
cooperation.
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
It is China's
sincere wish to cultivate with the fellow Asian countries an
overall and close partnership geared to Asian rejuvenation,
a partnership that features equality and mutual trust
politically, mutual benefit and win-win economically,
exchange and emulation culturally, and dialogue and
cooperation onthe security front. To this end, China will
take the following steps:
First,
enhancing friendship and political trust and
good-neighborliness. China will develop partnerships with
other Asian countries on the basis of the UN Charter and the
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, treating all
countries as equals irrespective of size and committing to
settling whatever disputes there might be through dialogue.
China hopes to see stronger high-level ties and interactions
at other levels with other fellow Asian countries, and more
timely consultations and coordination onmajor international
and regional issues.
Second, expanding and
deepening bilateral economic cooperation.China is ready to
develop all-round economic cooperation with fellow Asian
countries with emphasis on trade, investment,
naturalresources, information, pharmaceuticals, health
service, environmental protection, transportation, science
and technology, agriculture, poverty alleviation, and
development of human resources. China will continue taking
practical steps to help other developing Asian countries
with their economic development through preferential
policies. China will encourage its enterprises to take Asia
as their principal destination for "going global"
strategy, and combines its western development strategy and
the Northeast rejuvenation strategy with
strengthenedeconomic cooperation with the neighboring
countries.
Third, accelerating
regional economic integration. China hopes to study with
fellow Asian countries on possible free trade arrangements
of various forms consistent with prospective cooperation
network of free trade areas in Asia. China is ready tostep
up its coordination with other Asian partners on
macro-economic and financial policies and probe into the
establishment of regional cooperation regime of investors,
securities market, and financial institutions. China will
work actively to promote the institutional building of all
kinds of economic cooperation organizations with a view to
consolidating resources, prioritizingthe key areas and
conducting performance-oriented cooperation.
Fourth, promoting cultural interaction and
personnel exchanges.China is committed to stronger cultural
exchanges in Asia, and encourages media cooperation to
jointly build an Asia-wide cultural market. China supports
inter-culture and inter-religion dialogues in Asia, and
advocates greater understanding and tolerance. China is
ready to work with other Asian countries in promoting youth
exchanges, and providing greater convenience for people's
travel on public, business and tourist purposes.
Fifth, facilitating security dialogue
and military-to-military exchanges. China will stick to its
new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit,
equality and cooperation, and hopes to establish a security
relationship and cooperation featuring non-alignment,
non-confrontation, and non-targeting at any third
party.China will step up its cooperation and dialogue with
other Asian countries in such security areas as regional
counter-terrorism, combating transnational crimes, maritime
security, and non-proliferation, giving full play to
existing multilateral security mechanisms. China is ready to
set up a military security dialogue mechanism with other
Asian countries and actively promote confidence-building
cooperation in the military field.
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
China's
development cannot be achieved in isolation of Asia, and
Asia's prosperity also needs China. China will follow a
peaceful development path holding high the banners of peace,
development and cooperation, join the other Asian countries
in bringing about Asian rejuvenation, and making greater
contributionto the lofty cause of peace and development in
the world.
Thank you.