Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, delivers a speech in Kuala Lumpur on May 30, 2005.

Visiting top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo Monday reaffirmed China's consistent stand for strengthening political dialogue, expanding economic cooperation and enhancing security cooperation with other Asian countries.

Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, was invited by Malaysia's foreign ministry to deliver a speech titled "Deepening Good-neighborly Friendship in A Joint Effort for Asian Prosperity," in Kuala Lumpur.

Wu said in order to deepen its friendly cooperation with other Asian countries, China has consistently stood for strengthening political dialogue and increasing mutual trust.

Treating each other as equals with sincerity, China and other Asian countries have lived in amity by seeking common ground while shelving differences and constantly propelled their bilateral friendly relations toward in-depth development, he said.

China and other Asian countries have maintained the good momentum of exchanges of high-level visits and dialogues on multilateral occasions, he said.

Through equal-footed consultations and in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, China has properly resolved the land boundary questions left over from history with most neighboring countries, he said.

Guided by the principle of shelving disputes and engaging in common development, China has reached consensus with some countries on common development in the South China Sea and held the Senior Officials' Meeting which has brought about positive progress in the South China Sea cooperation, he said.

China stands for expanding economic cooperation and trade to promote common prosperity in Asia as they constitutes the material basis for achieving common development, he said. China keeps strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation with other Asian countries, injecting vigor and vitality into the development of state-to-state relations.

China has become the biggest import market in Asia and played a key role in spurring the Asian economic development, he said.

In 2004, China's total trade with the rest of Asia reached 665 billion US dollars, 4.7 times of that in 1994. Last year's import volume stood at 369.5 billion US dollars, up by 35 percent over the previous year.

Meanwhile, mutual investment has been increasingly expanding and personnel exchanges have been frequent. Asia has become China's major source of foreign investment and a key destination for Chinese enterprises to go global, he said.

As of the end of 2003, foreign direct investment (FDI) made by China in the rest of Asia totaled 26.56 billion dollars, accounting for 80 percent of China's total net FDI outflow.

"We are happy to see that a new type of cooperative relationship has taken shape between China and other Asian countries, characterized by complementarity, mutual benefit, mutual assistance and mutual reinforcement," he said.

Regional cooperation is an important channel for stronger solidarity and coordination. China takes an active part in the Asian regional cooperation in accordance with the principles of reciprocity, mutual benefit and gradualism, and emphasizes the coordination and cooperation with all parties in a bid to jointly push forward the regional economic integration process, he said.

In recent years, China-ASEAN relations have made big strides. The two sides have established a strategic partnership oriented toward peace and prosperity substantiated by the Action Plan, inaugurated the China-ASEAN FTA process and inked the agreements on trade in goods and the dispute settlement mechanism, thus ushering in a new phase of China-ASEAN relations, Wu said.

On East Asian cooperation, China supports ASEAN's continued leading role and is ready to work with the ASEAN countries to make the first East Asia Summit a success. China will continue to actively participate in the 10+1 and 10+3 cooperation, keep promoting this regional process in trade liberalization and make unremitting efforts for the economic development in East Asia as a whole, he said.

On the issues of enhancing security cooperation to maintain regional stability, Wu said peace and stability are the prerequisites and guarantees of development, adding that China calls for establishing a new type of security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination, resolving disputes through dialogue and promoting common security via cooperation.

"We have actively worked for peaceful resolution of regional hot-spot issues and intensified cooperation with regional countries in the non-traditional security fields including combating terrorism and transnational crimes, maritime security, public health, epidemic control, disaster prevention and reduction and others," he said.

China has also actively participated in and facilitated the security cooperation within ASEAN + China, Japan and South Korea and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), initiated 10+3 Ministerial Meeting on Combating Transnational Crimes and successfully held the ARF security policy meeting, he added.

The world is turning its eyes to Asia and Asia now faces a historic opportunity for accelerated development, Wu said. "China stands ready to join hands with all other Asian countries, Malaysia included, to deepen our good-neighborly friendship and make concerted efforts for a harmonious and prosperous Asia and for our continent's great rejuvenation," he concluded.

Source: Xinhua