— Keynote Speech by President Xi Jinping at the Fifth BRICS Leaders Meeting

(Durban, South Africa, March 27, 2013)

It gives me great pleasure to come back to the Rainbow Nation of South Africa after my last visit more than two years ago. I am deeply impressed by the warm hospitality of the South African people and their strong support for BRICS cooperation. I wish to extend heartfelt thanks to you, President Jacob Zuma, and the South African Government for the thoughtful arrangements you have made for the meeting.

As an old Chinese saying goes, "Nothing can separate people with common goals and ideals, not even mountains and seas." We, the five BRICS countries, come from four different continents. The grand goal of fostering partnership for common development and the noble cause of promoting democracy in international relations and advancing peace and development of mankind have brought us together. To pursue peace, development and win-win cooperation is our common aspiration and responsibility.

We need to firmly uphold international fairness and justice and safeguard world peace and stability. The world today is not tranquil and global threats and challenges of various kinds keep cropping up. The BRICS countries love and cherish peace and we share the aspiration for lasting peace of the world, a peaceful and stable social environment for all countries and a happy and comfortable life for all peoples.

No matter how the international situation may change, we should stay committed to pursuing peaceful development and win-win cooperation. What we need is peace and cooperation, not war and confrontation. While pursuing our own interests, we also need to accommodate the legitimate concerns of other countries.

No matter how the international architecture may evolve, we should stay committed to the principles of equality, democracy and inclusiveness, respect the right of all countries to independently choose their social systems and development paths and respect the diversity of civilizations. We should work to ensure that countries, irrespective of their size, strength and wealth, are all equal members of the international community and that the internal affairs of a country are handled by its own people and international affairs by all countries through consultation.

No matter how the reform of the global governance system may unfold, we should always take an active and constructive part in the process and make the international order more just and equitable so as to provide institutional safeguards for world peace and stability.

We should vigorously promote the building of a global development partnership and strive for the common prosperity of all countries. One tree does not make a forest. In an era of deepening economic globalization, we the BRICS countries should not just seek our own development, but also work for the common development of all countries.

We should manage our own affairs well by growing the economy and improving people's lives and create new sources of growth for the world economy. We should encourage all countries to strengthen coordination of macroeconomic policies, reform the international monetary and financial systems, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and bolster the momentum of global economic growth.

We should jointly participate in the setting of international development agenda, fully harness the productivity and material resources accumulated in the past, fulfill the UN Millennium Development Goals, narrow the North-South gap in development, and make global development more balanced. The theme of today's meeting, "Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialization," is not only the development goal of the BRICS countries, but also an important area of cooperation between the BRICS countries and African countries.

We should forge a strong bond among the BRICS countries through building this partnership and work hard to push forward our cooperation in economy and trade, finance, infrastructure, personnel interflow and other fields, and move toward the goal of integrated markets, a multi-tiered financial network, connectivity by land, air and sea, and greater cultural exchanges.

We should jointly support Africa's efforts for stronger growth, accelerated integration and industrialization and help Africa become a new bright spot in the world economy.

We should deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and seek win-win results. We still have a long way to go before we can deliver a decent life to all the 3 billion people of our countries and fully meet their aspirations for better livelihoods. To fulfill this task, we need to mainly rely on our own efforts and we also need stronger cooperation among the BRICS countries.

We should continue to enhance political trust among our five countries and friendship among our people, increase the sharing of experience on governance and jointly push forward industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization. We should abide by the law of development, foster new ideas and meet difficulties head on in the development process. We should continue to step up coordination and cooperation under the frameworks of the UN, the Group of 20 and international economic and financial institutions to safeguard our common interests.

We should translate our political consensus into concrete actions, actively advance such projects as a BRICS development bank and contingent reserve arrangement, accelerate practical cooperation in all fields, consolidate the economic and social foundation for cooperation, and present a positive image of the BRICS countries pursuing both domestic development and international cooperation.

It has only been five years since the BRICS was established and the mechanism is still at its initial stage of development. We should make solid efforts to run our own affairs well, make good progress in developing the cooperative partnership among BRICS countries and improve the institutional building of BRICS cooperation. As long as we keep firm confidence in our own development paths and in cooperation among the BRICS countries, as long as we do not flinch away from any risks and are not misled by any disturbances, our cause will surely enjoy broad prospects.

I know you all have a keen interest in China's future development. Looking ahead, China will work towards two grand goals: First, we will double China's 2010 GDP and per-capita income of urban and rural residents by 2020 and complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects that benefits the over 1 billion Chinese people. Second, we will build China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by 2049 when we mark the centenary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

To achieve these two goals, we will continue to make development our top priority and economic development our central task, and promote economic and social development. We will put people's interests first, strive for all-round progress in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological fields, coordinate all aspects and links of our modernization drive, and make China a beautiful country.

Our development endeavor is an open one, as we will remain committed to the basic state policy of opening to the outside world and the win-win strategy of opening up and further improve our open economy.

Our development endeavor is a cooperative one, as we will stick to the concept of common development, carry out economic and technological cooperation with all countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and promote our own development and common development of all countries through cooperation.

To achieve these two goals, we need a sound external environment. China will continue to follow an independent foreign policy of peace and integrate the interests of the Chinese people with those of people of all countries. We will work with other countries to strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, oppose protectionism, improve global economic governance and boost world economic growth.

To enhance cooperation with other BRICS countries has always been a priority on China's diplomatic agenda. China will continue to strengthen cooperation with other BRICS countries, in order to make the economic growth of BRICS countries more robust and our cooperation better-structured and more productive. This will bring tangible benefits to people of all countries and make a greater contribution to world peace and development.