Speech by President Hu Jintao in the CEO Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Hanoi, Vietnam, November 17, 2006
It gives great pleasure to have the opportunity to exchange views with friends in the business community on the economic development of Asia-Pacific region.
The world is undergoing profound and complicated changes. The furtherance of economic globalization and regional integration is bringing nations closer to each other and also provides favorable conditions for all the countries to conduct cooperation in broader areas, larger scales and at higher levels. The Asia-Pacific region has seen the establishment of all kinds of regional and sub-regional cooperation systems and more countries begin to take active participation in international cooperation and competition, which not only helps promote their own economic development but also drives regional economic prosperity. Asia-Pacific region is a land of vitality with bright future. At the same time, we must not overlook the striking imbalance in this region’s economic development. Some developing countries fail to gain benefits from the economic globalization due to their weak economic and technological foundation and the lack of effective means to seize development opportunities and the capability to resist external risks. In recent years, the frequent occurrence of such unconventional security threats as terrorist activities, serious natural disasters and contagious diseases has posed new challenges to developing countries in their process of development. It’s an important agenda before us to narrow the gap and promote common development.
With the theme of “Marching Towards One Community and Realizing Sustainable Development and Prosperity,” the meeting is dedicated to solving problems that stand in the way of development in the Asia Pacific and promoting balanced and sustainable development in the region. We should increase official development assistance with no strings attached to developing countries, intensify economic and technological cooperation in various forms and help them in human resources development, thus helping to foster a favorable external environment for their development and carry out South-South cooperation and North-South cooperation in various forms to push forward the advancement of developing countries.
With its continuous development and closer contact with the outside world, how China will continue its development has attracted attention from the international community. Here I’d like to brief on this question.
China is a member of the international community and the Asia-Pacific community, so its development is closely related to that of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. Since China adopted the policy of reform and opening up, China keeps concentrating on economic development, deepening its reform, and opening wider to the outside world. China is able to improve the living standard of its people on the basis of economic development, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese people and also peoples in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.
From 1978 to 2005, China chalked up an average annual growth of 9.6 percent in GDP, from US$147.3 billion to US$2,235 billion; its total volume of export and import surged from US$20.6 billion to US$1,422.1 billion, with the average annual growth rate exceeding 16 percent. In 2005, China’s total import volume hit US$659.9 billion. By the end of 2005, China had accumulatively used a total foreign direct investment of US$620 billion.
China is a developing country with a population of 1.3 billion and so its sustained and rapid economic growth, the improvement of people’s living standard and its expansion of opening up are of great importance to regional and global peace and economic growth.
At the same time, we know clearly that China still faces major problems and challenges due to its large population, weak economic foundation and uneven development in different regions. They include irrational economic structure and extensive economic growth mode, the uncoordinated urban and rural development, regional development as well as social and economic development, heavy pressure in terms of population, resources and environment and also striking problems in employment, social security, education and health care, etc. In order to remove these striking conflicts and problems, we have proposed the scientific concept of development, which means to put people first and aim at comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development. China will try to change the development concept, make innovation of the development mode, enhance the quality of development, and always try to solve problems through development and reform, so that all the people can benefit from development. In the coming years, China will give priority to the following areas:
—Speeding up Economic Restructuring and the Transformation of the Economic Growth Pattern. China will pursue a new road of industrialization, enhance the quality and efficiency of economic growth, actively increase domestic demand and strengthen scientific and technological innovation. We will endeavor to develop a cycle economy, lower energy and resources consumption and build a resource conserving and environmentally friendly society and ensure sound balance between economic development, population, resources and environment.
—Accelerating the Building of New Socialist Countryside. China will advance comprehensive rural reforms and strengthen development of modern agriculture, enhance the scales of economy of the agricultural sector, and raise the overall agricultural productivity, improve efficiency of farming and ensure steady growth in farmers’ income.
—Promoting Balanced Regional Development. We will continue to develop China’s western region, revitalize the old industrial bases in northeast and other regions, promote the rise of Central China and encourage China’s eastern region to take the lead in development.
—Building a Harmonious Society. China will vigorously develop social programs, promote social fairness and justice, build a culture of harmony and improve social management and fully release people’s creativity. China will give priority to problems that people are most concerned with and that have direct impact on their interests. It will focus on the improvement of employment and social security system and on the coordination of incomes. It will try to build a stable, friendly and harmonious world of democracy, rule of law, justice and fairness, sincerity, order and harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
China will stick to the road of peaceful development, trying to develop itself by safeguarding world peace and promote world peace by realizing its own development. China is and will always be a staunch force to safeguard world peace and promote common development.
China’s development mainly depends on the hard work of the Chinese people themselves. Meanwhile, China is unswervingly implementing its basic national policy of reform and opening up to the outside world and its open policy aimed at mutual benefit and a win-win result. Since China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, its import has totaled US$2.4 trillion, and foreign investors in China remitted US$58 billion in profit. Statistics from the World Bank show that since 2001, China on average has contributed to 13 percent of the world’s economic growth.
China’s stable and rapid economic growth is contributing vitality to the regional and global economic development and also bringing more opportunities to the business community all over the world. We will further deepen the reform of foreign-related economic sectors, accelerate the transformation pattern of trade growth and improve trade structure to ensure balanced growth of import and export. We will actively introduce foreign investment, open the service sectors wider, enhance the protection of intellectual property rights and raise China’s overall level of openness.
China actively participates in international economic cooperation. Its development has benefited from the development of the region and the world. At the same time, the region and the world has also benefited from China’s development.
China will continue to take part in international economic cooperation in broader fields, more extensive areas and at a higher level. China will continue to push forward the negotiations on regional economic cooperation and on free trade zones, offer assistance and support within its capacity to other developing countries.
Harmony is a defining value of the Chinese civilization. China upholds the building of a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity. China will work with the rest of the world for harmonious coexistence in the political field, common development in the economic field, mutual enriching in the cultural field and mutual trust and coordination in the security field, to continue to contribute to the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. The active involvement of the business community is required to narrow the development gap and promote common development. Enterprises are market actors and major investors and also the major players in bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation. Funds and technologies of enterprises are of great importance to the acceleration of development of developing countries. Business leaders should give more priority to exploring business opportunities and expanding market share in developing countries. Governments of all countries, the Chinese Government included, are willing to provide necessary support and convenience to you.
All of you present here are leading personnel in the Asia-Pacific’s business community, equipped with rich experience in international cooperation, who are expected to play an active role in promoting the economic and technological cooperation and common development in the Asia-Pacific region.
Let us make joint efforts to promote the economic development of Asia-Pacific region and to make our region a harmonious land of common prosperity.
