Strengthen confidence in tie-up
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This is the full text of a speech given by President Hu Jintao at the APEC CEO Summit in Singapore on Nov 13, 2009, with the title "Strengthen confidence in cooperation and revive world economy".
Madame Chair,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,
I am delighted to join you, representatives of the Asia-Pacific business community, here in Singapore for an exchange of views on "Rebuilding the Global Economy: Crisis and Opportunity".
Thanks to the concerted efforts of the international community, the world economy has shown positive signs of stabilization and recovery, which will help us increase confidence and deepen cooperation. At the same time, we must recognize that the international financial crisis has laid bare some serious problems, including the lack of sustainability in the current pattern of world economic growth and the existence of major deficiencies in the international financial system. The profound impact of the financial crisis is still evident and the world economic upturn is not yet firmly established. The inherent problems of the international economic system have not been fully addressed, and a comprehensive world economic recovery still faces many uncertainties and destabilizing factors.
To ensure long-term development of the world economy, we must, while countering immediate difficulties, adopt a multi-pronged approach and effectively address the underlying structural problems in the world economy. We should turn the crisis into an opportunity and lay a solid foundation for the full recovery of the world economy. I wish to propose, in this connection, that we make greater efforts in the following areas:
First, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation with strong determination. Only with trade and investment liberalization and facilitation can we achieve world economic recovery and growth. The international financial crisis has given rise to trade and investment protectionism of various forms. Protectionism will not help any country move out of the crisis. It can only pose a threat to the fragile momentum of economic recovery. We must continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and oppose protectionism in all its manifestations, particularly the unreasonable trade and investment restrictions imposed on developing countries. We should advance the Doha Round negotiations on the basis of locking in the existing achievements and respecting the Doha mandate. We need to speed up the settlement of the remaining issues and work for early comprehensive and balanced outcomes in the negotiations in order to achieve the goals of the development round. The developed members of APEC should adopt effective measures to meet the Bogor Goals on schedule next year, so as to inject new vitality into sustained economic and trade growth in our region.
Second, push forward regional economic integration through multiple channels. Regional economic integration will bring about more dynamic intra-regional trade and investment and represents an important means in driving regional and world economic growth. We should continue to explore diverse ways to accelerate economic integration in the Asia-Pacific. We should promote economic structural reform with a focus on regulatory reform in a voluntary, flexible and pragmatic fashion. We should further improve the business environment and facilitate cross-border business operations. And we should continue to improve trade, telecommunication and transportation networks and strengthen infrastructural development in the region so as to provide the material foundation and institutional guarantee for regional economic integration.
Third, advance reform of the international financial system with renewed efforts. The international economic situation is now improving, but we should not slow down reform of the international financial system. We should follow a comprehensive, balanced, incremental and results-oriented approach and work for a fair, just, inclusive and well-managed international financial system and an institutional environment conducive to sound development of the world economy. We should continue to increase the representation and voice of developing countries in international financial institutions, speedily implement the quantitative reform targets set at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, and improve decision-making process and mechanisms in international financial institutions. We should move forward reform of the international financial supervisory and regulatory system and improve the most fundamental principles and goals of supervision and regulation. We should encourage stronger international cooperation in financial supervision and regulation, expand the coverage of supervision and regulation and move quickly to adopt supervisory and regulatory standards that are widely acceptable.
Fourth, accelerate transformation of economic development patterns with innovative ideas. A shift in economic development patterns is the fundamental way to realize balanced and orderly development of the world economy. Historical experience tells us that a major economic crisis is always followed by scientific and technological breakthroughs and industrial readjustments, which catalyze transformation of economic development patterns. We should speed up scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading, develop green economy and circular economy, and rely on scientific and technological advancement to build up the internal dynamism of the world economy. We should intensify economic and technical cooperation, reduce man-made barriers to technology transfer, narrow the technological gap, especially the green technology gap, between developed and developing members and avoid a new "green divide". It is incumbent upon developed members to help developing members gain access to capital and technology needed for the transformation of economic development patterns, thus contributing to balanced and orderly development of the world economy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The international financial crisis has brought unprecedented difficulties and challenges to the Chinese economy. In the face of the crisis, China made timely adjustment to its macroeconomic policies, and introduced a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy. We adopted a stimulus package and relevant policy measures, and have improved them in the course of their implementation. Our focus in countering the crisis is to expand domestic demand, especially consumer demand. In concrete terms, our efforts mainly include the following:
First, expand domestic demand to strengthen the momentum of development. The massive government investment and the non-public capital it generated have been mainly channeled to projects related to people's well-being, the environment and technological innovation. We have been working hard to improve the consumption environment, adjust distribution relations, increase people's ability to spend and foster new areas of high consumer demand. We have reduced burdens on both enterprises and individuals through structural tax cuts and provided greater credit support to enterprises. All these measures are designed to foster a new pattern of economic growth driven jointly by consumption, investment and export. We are accelerating transformation of our development pattern and the restructuring of our economy, implementing large-scale plans to readjust and reinvigorate industries and promoting innovation in science and technology. We are making great effort to expand the domestic market, especially the rural market, control total discharge of pollutants and ensure both a sound natural eco-system and a sound socio-economic system.
Second, deepen reform to unleash economic vitality. We have intensified reform in priority areas and key links, including the price of resource products, fiscal and taxation regimes, the financial system and State-owned enterprises with a view to spurring creativity in the whole society.
Third, improve people's livelihood to consolidate the foundation of development. We have given priority to undertakings concerning people's well-being in the economic stimulus measures and pooled resources to accelerate relevant key projects. We are making every effort to address issues concerning the immediate interests of the people, such as employment, medical care, housing, old-age support and environmental protection. In particular, we have intensified efforts to improve the social safety net and substantially raised social security benefits. What we have been doing will not only increase investment and unleash the potential of public consumption, but also put China's long-term economic development on a firm footing.
Fourth, expand the scope of opening-up to pursue mutual benefit and win-win progress. We follow a win-win strategy of opening-up. While making efforts to stabilize export, we are also upgrading and transforming the processing trade sector and improving our trade structure. We have been expanding import, with a special focus on advanced technologies and equipment, key spare parts as well as important energy resources and raw materials. We are implementing the free trade area strategy at a faster pace and actively promoting regional economic integration. We want to share with other economies the benefits of expanded markets and deeper division of labor.
These policies and measures have produced good results. They have enabled us to maintain the momentum of steady and relatively fast economic growth and set the stage for sustained growth of the economy. China will further boost domestic demand, vigorously expand the domestic market, and promote balanced growth of domestic and external demand. We will further advance transformation of the economic development pattern, encourage industrial upgrading, energy saving and pollution reduction and ensure both economic development and environmental protection. We will continue to improve people's well-being, especially with respect to education, medical care, old-age support, housing and other social programs so as to promote balanced economic and social development. And we will follow through on our regional development strategies to achieve balanced development of different regions in China.
China cannot achieve development in isolation from the world, and the world needs China for development. A more developed China will bring more opportunities and make greater contribution to the world. The series of measures China has adopted to counter the international financial crisis are conductive to the steady and relatively fast growth of the Chinese economy and the international effort to alleviate the impact of the financial crisis and restore world economic growth. They have also offered more opportunities for other countries and the business community of the Asia-Pacific region. We welcome people from the Asia-Pacific business community like you to actively participate in China's development endeavor and believe that your participation will benefit both your businesses and China's economic development.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Not long ago, the Chinese people celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. China has achieved remarkable progress in those 60 years, particularly in the last 30 years since reform and opening-up. China's economy and comprehensive national strength have grown significantly and various social programs have made big strides. The Chinese people, once lacking basic living necessities, are now leading a moderately prosperous life, and the whole society is showing unprecedented dynamism and creativity. We are keenly aware, however, that China remains the world's largest developing country. The difficulties and problems that we face in development are rarely seen in any other part of the world in terms of their scale and complexity. We still have a long way to go before we can build, in a comprehensive way, a moderately prosperous society of a higher level that will benefit the more than 1 billion Chinese people, and then achieve basic modernization and bring common prosperity to all our people. We will, in the light of our national conditions, continue to follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, persist in reform and opening-up, promote scientific development and social harmony, and achieve all-round progress in the economic, political, cultural, social and environmental fields. We will ensure that our development is for the people and by the people and the fruits of development are shared among the people.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the fastest growing and most dynamic region in the world economy in recent years, the Asia-Pacific has become an important engine in world economic growth and its role and influence in the world economic arena have been on the rise. The business community is the backbone of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region and an important driving force in international economic interactions and trade. It has played an important role in countering the impact of the international financial crisis, leading the economic recovery in the Asia-Pacific region and promoting world economic growth. All of you present are business leaders with vision and rich experience in international cooperation. I encourage you to seize the important opportunities brought by world economic adjustments, seek new development opportunities from the crisis, and play an active role in promoting the full recovery and long-term development of the world economy.
I am confident that as long as we deepen cooperation and jointly promote the development of the Asia-Pacific community, we will usher in a better future of enduring peace and common prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thank you.
