China, APEC hand in hand towards common development
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The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week meetings on Nov. 7-14 are being held in Japan's port city of Yokohama. As a major economy in the Asia-Pacific region, China is playing an active role in the regional economic forum.
China works closely with other APEC member economies, sharing development concepts and coping collaboratively with challenges, in a bid to build a "large Asia-Pacific family" featuring lasting peace and common prosperity.
Feeling China’s existence
Established in 1989, the 21-member APEC is the only inter- governmental organization in the world operating on the basis of non-binding commitments, open dialogue and equal respect for the views of all participants. With the growth of its economy as well as the marked build-up of its national influence on the international scene, China has made its presence clearly felt in APEC meetings.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Charles Morrison, co- chair of Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), said that when it joined APEC 20 years ago, China was seeking to advance its understanding the international system. And now, China, like other members, has become an integral part of the organization.
"As a member of the the Asia-Pacific family, China has always attached great importance to and actively participated in cooperation in various areas within the framework of APEC," said Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin in a recent press briefing.
"And the Chinese president attended all previous APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting," he said.
And Chinese business personages have also been frequent participants in APEC meetings.
"I feel that China did not have a loud voice as it has today, nor did it come under the spotlight as it does today," said Wang Lili, vice president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in an interview with Xinhua.
"I have deeply sensed that the Chinese economy has been quickening its paces steps in incorporating into the world economy," said Wang, who has been China's representative in APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) .
Sharing Chinese concepts
A country with a population of 1.3 billion, China as its member not only matters much to APEC in quantity, but substantializes the content of its concepts.
As the aftershocks of the global financial crisis persist and the world economic recovery is faced with various volatile factors, many of the concepts framed by China have become a consensus among APEC member economies.
"China hopes the ongoing APEC meetings will send a clear message that the APEC member economies will work closely to seek common development in the post-crisis era, " said Pang Sen, a senior Chinese diplomat and Chinese representative at APEC Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting.
"As the aftershocks of the global financial crisis still persist, APEC member economies need to work together to weather hard times," he said. Pang's remarks were echoed by Charles Morrison, co-chair of Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC)
"I hope the summit will demonstrate the solidarity of economies in the Asia-Pacific region, their willingness to work with each other to get along with developing positive solutions to problems, and they take policies that the Asia-Pacofic region need," he told Xinhua.
The basic principles formulated at the Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting have been included in the draft Leaders' Declaration of APEC 2010 Yokohama meetings, according to Pang.
Coping collaboratively with challenges
In view of the massive impacts exerted by the global financial crisis, leaders were of one mind at APEC 2009 Singapore meetings that APEC member economies needed to change their patterns of economic growth.
At APEC Japan 2010 meetings, China is working with other member economies in a concerted effort to adopt a new strategy for economic growth in Asia-Pacific, which will show the right direction for the region's future economic development.
At the core of the strategy are the realization of balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and risk-free growth, which coincide with policies of transforming the pattern of economic growth, realizing inclusive growth and promoting independent innovation China is vigorously implementing.
According to a survey released Wednesday by the PECC, opinion leaders from government, business and the non-government sectors in Asia-Pacific believe that the implementation of structural reforms ranked as the most important action to rebalance growth, followed by increasing domestic demand in East Asia and reducing the U.S. fiscal and current account deficits.
To this end, China and other member need to make a cooperative endeavor: China, a country with current- account surpluses, is supposed to expand its domestic demand while the United States, an economy with current-account deficits, needs to reduce its fiscal and trade deficits.
Apart from the strategy for economic growth, 2010 is the target year for the APEC industrialized economies to achieve the Bogor Goals. Although APEC member economies have made a lot of headway in realizing trade and investment liberalization, they still have a long way to go.
China is one of the nations that have taken the lead in promoting regional economic integration. The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which came into effect on Jan. 1, 2010, has become a comparatively mature regional free trade area within APEC.
China will adopt an open and supportive attitude to proposals for bilateral and multilateral free trade areas as long as they are conducive to economic integration in Asia-Pacific and promote economic development in the region.
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