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Chinese Vice Premier Calls for Closer Ties of Asian Nations
Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen made a speech Tuesday at the inaugural ceremony of Boao Forum for Asia. The following is the excerpts of his speech.
The present-day world is undergoing profound changes. The trends toward political multi-polarization and economic globalization continue to develop. In the new century, Asia faces both tremendous opportunities and severe challenges.
In the past two decades and more, Asia has by and large maintained a relatively high rate of economic growth. At present, Asia takes up a quarter of the global economic aggregate and more than half of the global foreign exchange reserves. Asia has gradually gained economic recovery from the financial crisis of 1997 and is still one of the fastest growing and most vibrant regions in the world. Asian countries have a fairly sound economic basis and big potentials for development. Asia will be able to recreate a miracle in economic development in the new century.
In face of the challenges and opportunities economic globalization brings with it, it is necessary for Asia to further expand and deepen economic cooperation in the region. As an inevitable process of development, economic globalization has both positive and negative repercussions. Regional economic cooperation helps countries to complement one another and is conducive to effective allocation of resources, to more trade and mutual investment and to better capacity to ward off risks and enhance overall competitiveness. Greater interdependence among countries and closer regional cooperation will also play an active role in promoting peace and development in the region. In the meantime, Asia maintains close links with other regions of the world. Asia cannot develop in isolation from the rest of the world. Openness should be a prominent feature of the regional cooperation in Asia. Such cooperation can take many forms. Inter-governmental and non- governmental regional and sub-regional cooperation mechanisms such as APEC, leadership meetings of ASEAN and China, Japan and ROK (10 + 3) and ASEM complement and reinforce one another in the interest of common development of the region and the world at large.
In 1998, Mr. Robert Hawke, Mr. Fidel Ramos and Mr. Morihiro Hosokawa put forward the concept of a forum for Asia, which drew a warm response from the relevant countries in the Asia-Pacific and people from various circles who cared for the development of Asia. The fact that this proposal became a reality in a short span of three years shows that this concept reflects the trend of the times and the shared aspirations of countries. The Chinese government welcomes and supports the choice of Boao, China as the permanent venue for the Forum.
The Boao Forum for Asia is a non-official international organization. Based in Asia, it will serve as an appropriate venue for entrepreneurs and people from the industrial, commercial and academic circles who are interested in the development in the development of Asia to acquire information, exchange views and expand cooperation, thus promoting mutual understanding and mutually beneficial cooperation among Asian countries and between Asia and other regions of the world.
As a member of the economic system of Asia and the world, China has for years maintained a good momentum of development. Hainan Province is the biggest special economic zone in China. The changes taking place here are an epitome of what China has achieved in the past twenty years and more since the implementation of the policy of reform and opening-up. Having attained the objectives of the first two phases of its modernization program, China is now moving toward its third strategic objective of realizing modernization in the main. It is expected that by the end of this decade, China's economic aggregate will double the current figure, reaching 2 trillion U.S. dollars. The Chinese people are faced with three major tasks in the new century, that is, to continue its modernization drive, to achieve the reunification of China and to safeguard world peace and promote common development. China is formulating its Tenth Five-Year Plan. In the coming five years, China will speed up the strategic restructuring of its economy, enhance informatization for the national economy and society, carry out the strategy of developing its west and expand its opening up to the outside world. China is now losing no time in making preparations for its entry into the WTO. We can say for sure that the Chinese market will be more open, laws and regulations more complete and investment climate more desirable. China cannot develop in isolation from Asia and the world. It is our hope that participants in the Forum will continue to pay attention and give support to China's development and expand their cooperation with China in all fields.
The Chinese government has all along supported and taken an active part in the multi-level, multi-channel and multi-form regional dialogs and cooperation. President Jiang Zemin's presence at the inaugural ceremony of the Forum and the speech he made here fully show the importance China has attached and the support it has given to the Forum.
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