Following is the full text ofthe keynote speech Chinese
President Hu Jintao delivered at the opening ceremony of the Boao
Forum for Asia 2004 annual conference Saturday:
China's Development Is an Opportunity for
Asia
Speech by President Hu Jintao of China at the Opening Ceremony
of the Boao Forum for Asia 2004 Annual
Conference.
Boao, 24 April 2004/4/23
Honorable Guests, Friends, Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to attend the Boao Forum for Asia
2004 Annual Conference today. Let me begin by extending, on behalf
of the Chinese government, my warmest welcome to all of you present
here.
In the past few years, with the support of the fellow Asian
countries and the larger international community, the Boao Forum
for Asia has developed steadily, playing an increasingly prominent
role in regional cooperation and demonstrating to the rest of the
world the fervent desire of the Asian people for a win-win scenario
through closer cooperation.
Coming into the 21st century, the international situation has
continued to undergo profound and complicated changes. World
multipolarization and economic globalization are progressing amid
twists and turns. Science and technology are advancing with each
passing day. We have before us both development opportunities that
we must seize and grave challenges that we must deal with. Despite
the widespread conflicts and clashes of interest and increasing
numbers of factors of uncertainty and instability, peace and
development remain the overriding themes of the times. The world
needs peace, countries desire development and people want
cooperation. This has become an irresistible trend of history.
We are glad to see that Asia has, on the whole, enjoyed
stability, with peace, development and cooperation becoming the
mainstream of an advancing Asia. With concerted efforts, Asian
countries have freed themselves from the shadow of the financial
crisis, overcome the impact of SARS and bird flu, succeeded in
domestic economic restructuring, and quickened the tempo of
industrial upgrading and transformation, promoted a robust regional
cooperation, and increased the capacity to tide over potential
risks. Asia retains its position as one of the world's most dynamic
regions and a key growth point in global trade. All this gives us
much confidence about Asia's future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Both in history and the present-day world, a country can emerge
victorious from tough international competition and enjoy faster
development only when it gets along with the tide of the times,
seizes the opportunities for development, blazes a trail suited to
its national conditions and relies on wisdom and resourcefulness of
its own people.
In the past 25 years, while pressing ahead with reform and
opening up, China has put initially in place a socialist market
economy, an economy that is open to the outside world. China's
productive forces and overall national strength have been
constantly enhanced. With various social undertakings developing in
full swing, the Chinese people as a whole have made the historical
leap from subsistence to modest prosperity. In the course of 25
years between 1978 and 2003, China's economy grew by an average
annual rate of 9.4 percent, with its GDP, foreign trade and foreign
exchange reserves jumping from US$147.3 billion, US$20.6 billion
and US$167 million to over US$1.4 trillion, US$851.2 billion and
US$403.3 billion respectively. China now is the world's sixth
largest economy and the fourth largest trader. The reason why China
has produced such tremendous changes is because we have adhered to
the road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and
persevered in reform and opening-up, thus galvanizing the Chinese
people's initiative, enthusiasm and creativity.
Though China has achieved impressive results in its development,
there are still many acute problems, such as overpopulation, weak
economic foundation, underdeveloped productivity, highly uneven
development, and a fairly sharp contradiction between the country's
ecological environment and natural resources on the one hand and
its economic and social development on the other. China's per
capita GDP, though reaching the record high of US$1,000 last year,
still ranks behind the 100th place in the world. To make China's
modernization program a success and deliver a prosperous life for
all the Chinese people still requires a long and uphill battle.
We have already set a clear goal for the first 20 years of this
century. Namely, in building a well-off society of a higher
standard in an al-round way for the benefit of well over one
billion Chinese people, we will quadruple the 2000 GDP to US$4
trillion with a per capita GDP of US$3,000, further develop the
economy, improve democracy, advance science and education, enrich
culture, foster greater social harmony and upgrade the texture of
life for the people.
To achieve this goal, we will continue to follow the guidance of
Deng Xiaoping theory and the important thoughts of the "Three
Represents" and conscientiously act, in an all-round way, on the
concept of people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and
sustainable development. This scientific concept of development
crystallizes the successful experience of China's reform,
opening-up and modernization drive in the past 25 years and that of
the other countries in their course of development, and reflects a
new understanding of the issue of development by the Chinese
Government and people. We will take economic development as our top
priority, aim ourselves to the all-round development of man, and
follow a development path characterized by high productivity,
affluent life and sound eco-system by properly balancing urban and
rural development, development among regions, economic and social
development, development of man and nature, and domestic
development and opening to the outside world.
To achieve this goal, we will continue to push vigorously our
reform and opening-up program, concentrating on building and
perfecting our socialist market economy and making it more dynamic
and more open to the outside world. Taking the initiative in our
own hands with independence and self-reliance in development is an
important experience of ours. We persevere in reform, because we
need to remove the institutional barriers that impede the
development of productive forces and unleash the dynamism that
exist in our society for development and creativity. In so doing,
we mainly rely on institutional and technological innovation, on
expanding domestic demand and on increasing the professional
aptitude of our citizens. In the meantime, we firmly stick to our
opening-up policy, taking an active part in international economic
and technology cooperation, and making contribution to China's own
development and the common development in the world.
On our road to progress, we are still encountering the multitude
of contradictions and problems, and the various risks and
challenges. However, the Chinese people have the confidence and the
capability to overcome all kinds of hardships and difficulties and
make China's modernization and great rejuvenation a reality.
Ladies and gentlemen,
China is an Asian country. China's development is closely
related to Asia's prosperity. China has, and will continue to make
a positive impact on Asia in the area of development.-- A
developing China generates important opportunities for Asia. As the
world's biggest potential market, China has presided over in the
past 25 years a steadily expanding and maturing market with import
growing at an average annual rate of over 15 percent, which has
made China the third largest importer globally and the largest
importer in Asia. In 2003, China imported from the rest of Asia a
total of US$272.9 billion worth of merchandise, up by
42.4percent, with imports from ASEAN, Japan, ROK and India
increasing by over 35 percent. Direct investment in the rest of
Asia by China has risen at an average annual rate of 20 percent in
recent years. In 2003, more than 20 million outbound visits were
made by Chinese nationals, as more and more Chinese tourists made
Asian countries and regions their choice destinations. With China's
development, the size of its market and its overseas investment
will grow even larger and still more Chinese will travel to the
other parts of Asia for sightseeing, business and visit. China's
economy will integrate still more closely with Asian economy,
giving rise to a new type of partnership characterized by mutual
benefit, mutual complement and mutual assistance.-- China's
development contributes to peace and stability in Asia. A stable
and prosperous China is in itself an important contribution to
peace and stability in Asia. China since ancient times has had a
fine tradition of sincerity, benevolence, kindness and trust
towards the neighbors. The very purpose of China's foreign policy
is to maintain world peace and promote common development. China
always practices what it preaches. Persisting in building
good-neighborly relationships and partnership with the neighboring
countries, we pursue a policy of bringing harmony, security and
prosperity to neighbors and dedicate ourselves to strengthening
mutual trust and cooperation with the fellow Asian countries,
easing up hot spot tensions, and striving to maintain peace and
tranquility in Asia.
China's development injects fresh vigor to regional cooperation
in Asia. China has been extensively involved in the various
mechanisms of Asia-based regional cooperation, emphasizing its
cooperation and coordination with all the parties and promoting
regional economic integration. China has joined the fellow Asian
countries in discussing the possibility of free trade areas,
conducting various forms of security dialogues and cementing
cooperation on the bilateral level while promoting regional
cooperation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is China's sincere wish to cultivate with the fellow Asian
countries an overall and close partnership geared to Asian
rejuvenation, a partnership that features equality and mutual trust
politically, mutual benefit and win-win economically, exchange and
emulation culturally, and dialogue and cooperation on the security
front. To this end, China will take the following steps:
First, enhancing friendship and political trust and
good-neighborliness. China will develop partnerships with other
Asian countries on the basis of the UN Charter and the Five
Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, treating all countries as
equals irrespective of size and committing to settling whatever
disputes there might be through dialogue. China hopes to see
stronger high-level ties and interactions at other levels with
other fellow Asian countries, and more timely consultations and
coordination on major international and regional issues.
Second, expanding and deepening bilateral economic cooperation.
China is ready to develop all-round economic cooperation with
fellow Asian countries with emphasis on trade, investment, natural
resources, information, pharmaceuticals, health service,
environmental protection, transportation, science and technology,
agriculture, poverty alleviation, and development of human
resources. China will continue taking practical steps to help other
developing Asian countries with their economic development through
preferential policies. China will encourage its enterprises to take
Asia as their principal destination for "going global" strategy,
and combines its western development strategy and the Northeast
rejuvenation strategy with strengthened economic cooperation with
the neighboring countries.
Third, accelerating regional economic integration. China hopes
to study with fellow Asian countries on possible free trade
arrangements of various forms consistent with prospective
cooperation network of free trade areas in Asia. China is ready to
step up its coordination with other Asian partners on
macro-economic and financial policies and probe into the
establishment of regional cooperation regime of investors,
securities market, and financial institutions. China will work
actively to promote the institutional building of all kinds of
economic cooperation organizations with a view to consolidating
resources, prioritizing the key areas and conducting
performance-oriented cooperation.
Fourth, promoting cultural interaction and personnel exchanges.
China is committed to stronger cultural exchanges in Asia, and
encourages media cooperation to jointly build an Asia-wide cultural
market. China supports inter-culture and inter-religion dialogues
in Asia, and advocates greater understanding and tolerance. China
is ready to work with other Asian countries in promoting youth
exchanges, and providing greater convenience for people's travel on
public, business and tourist purposes.
Fifth, facilitating security dialogue and military-to-military
exchanges. China will stick to its new security concept featuring
mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, and hopes
to establish a security relationship and cooperation featuring
non-alignment, non-confrontation, and non-targeting at any third
party. China will step up its cooperation and dialogue with other
Asian countries in such security areas as regional
counter-terrorism, combating transnational crimes, maritime
security, and non-proliferation, giving full play to existing
multilateral security mechanisms. China is ready to set up a
military security dialogue mechanism with other Asian countries and
actively promote confidence-building cooperation in the military
field.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China's development cannot be achieved in isolation of Asia, and
Asia's prosperity also needs China. China will follow a peaceful
development path holding high the banners of peace, development and
cooperation, join the other Asian countries in bringing about Asian
rejuvenation, and making greater contribution to the lofty cause of
peace and development in the world.
Thank you.
(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2004)