H.E. Amb. Li Jinjun Delivered a Keynote Speech at the Symposium of " Assessing R.P. China Relations in the Age of Multilateralism". The symposium is sponsored by the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations with the Cooperation of Hanns Seidel Foundation. Undersecretary Esteban B. Conejos Jr. of Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, Dr. Reuben Mondejar, Associate Professor of the City University of Hong Kong also delivered speeches. There are more than 100 people from academic, business and diplomatic circles attended the event.
The following is the full text of the Speech of Amb. Li Jinjun.
Sticking to the Road of Peaceful Development
Striving for Common Prosperity
Hon. Esteban Conejos, Underecretary, Department of Foreign Affairs
Amb. Jose Romero, President of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good morning!
First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to the Philippine Council For Foreign Relations for inviting me to this event, and I am very pleased to take this opportunity to exchange my views on China's development and Sino-Philippine relations with all of you. The title of my speech is Sticking to the Road of Peaceful Development and Striving for Common Prosperity. In recent years, china's development has attracted increasing attentions from people all over the world. There are two totally different views on China's development; one regards it as an opportunity, the other as a threat. As close neighbors, many Filipino friends are also very concerned on the future advancement of China and on the implications it may have on the Philippines. I wish my speech and the Symposium today will help you understand more of China and its future developments and the impact on Sino-Philippine relations as well as on the region and the world at large.
Dear friends,
Since 1978, when the policy of reform and opening-up was adopted, China has made remarkable achievements in social-economic development. Its GDP has increased from US$215 billion to US$2.23 trillion in 2005, scoring an average annual growth rate of 9.5 percent. Its per-capita GDP has risen from less than US$300 to more than US$1,700. For the past 29 years of reform and opening-up, China has embarked on a peaceful road of development, which is determined by both China's traditional culture as well as the real needs of development. Along this road, the Chinese people are working hard to build China into a prosperous, democratic, and harmonious modern country, and are continually making new contributions to world economy and noble cause of mankind with China's own development.
The Chinese people are peace-loving people and Chinese culture is a culture of peace. One hundred years before Christopher Columbus discovered the New Continent in 1492, Mr. Zheng He, the famous navigator of the Ming Dynasty, leading the largest fleet of his times, made seven voyages to more than 30 countries and regions in Asia and Africa. What he took to the places he visited were tea, chinaware, silk and technology, instead of war or colonization. Mr. Deng Xiaoping proclaimed many times to the world that China belongs to the third world and China would never seek hegemony even after she become stronger. The successful partnership between China and ASEAN in recent years is a good example which demonstrates that China's development poses no threat to any country. On the contrary, China has brought wider market and more development opportunities for other countries. Despite the great progress, China still remains the largest developing country in the world, with a big population, poor foundation and uneven balance of development. According to the 2004 statistics released by the World Bank and by China, China's aggregate economic volume accounted only for 16.6 percent of that of US, and its per-capita GDP was merely 3.6 percent of US and 4.0 percent of Japan, ranking 129th among 208 countries and regions around the world. By the end of 2004, 26 million rural Chinese still lived under the poverty line. There is still a long way to go for China to reach the level of the moderately developed countries. Therefore, China needs several generations to work hard as well as a peaceful international environment for its own growth.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China's peaceful development has contributed greatly to the region and the world at large. Firstly, China has made contributions in reducing poverty and improving the quality of life. It has created a miracle by feeding nearly 22 percent of the world's population on 7 percent of the world's arable land. The living standards of its 1.3 billion people are constantly improving. The Chinese government has lifted 220 million people out of poverty, provided minimum living allowances to 22.05 million urban residents and supported 60 million disabled people. This is by itself a significant contribution to the world. Over the years, China has persisted in exploring a new road to industrialization, featuring highly scientific and technological content, good economic returns, low resources consumption, minuscule environmental pollution and a full display of manpower opportunities. It has also strived in steering the entire society along a road of sustained development with advanced production, affluent life and favorable ecological conditions.
Secondly, China has played a constructive role in maintaining international and regional stability. With respect to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, China worked tirelessly with the other relevant parties, and succeeded in convening the Six-Party Talks, thus mitigating tension on the peninsula, and contributing beneficially to peace and stability in Northeast Asia. As for the joint development in the South China Sea, China set in motion with Philippines and Vietnam the joint Seismic Undertaking process, making historic breakthrough of turning the sea of disputes into the sea of cooperation. At the time of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, China played a responsible role as one of the major countries in the region by keeping the value of Renminbi stable and by helping the victim countries to weather the crisis. Upon the occurrence of the Indian Ocean tsunami in late 2004, the Chinese government and its people offered the largest external aid in the history of China.
Thirdly, China has made contributions to world economic development. From 2000 to 2005, China's economic growth contributed an average 13 percent to world economic growth. Since China became the member of WTO, it annually imported US$500 billion worth of commodities, which opened 10 million job opportunities for the countries and regions concerned. During the process, the rest of the world found development and business opportunities in their mutual cooperation with China. At the same time, China's rapid economic growth offered the international capital investors great openings on the huge market of China. From 1990 to 2004, foreign investors repatriated US$250.6 billion of profits from China. For many years, China has provided assistance within its capacity to other developing countries. China has canceled debts of 44 developing countries totaling 20 billion Yuan, and has given zero tariff treatment for certain products to all the 39 Least-Developed Countries (LDCs). On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations last year, President Hu Jintao announced that China would provide US$10 billion in preferential loans and preferential export buyer's credit to developing countries, and one third of the loans will go to ASEAN countries.
Dear friends,
China and the rest of Asia will have to rely on each other for common development and prosperity. Committed in building good friendly relationships and partnerships and in implementing the policy of creating an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood, China makes efforts to achieve the goal of mutual benefit and win-win result with adjacent countries. China has become the largest import market in Asia. In 2005, China's import volume from Asian countries and regions reached 440 billion US dollars, increased by 20%, accounting for 67% of China's total import volume. In the next five years, China will import goods worth more than 2 trillion US dollars from Asian countries. Chinese investment abroad is also rising at an annual rate of 20%, 80% of which goes to Asia. Facts have proved that the peaceful development of China has brought substantial benefits to Asian countries, and effectively promoted the advancement of regional economy.
In recent years, China-Philippine relations have maintained a good momentum of development with continuous exchanges of high-level visits and growing political mutual trust. The two governments have agreed to work vigorously for the establishment of a strategic and cooperative relationship for peace and development. Economic and trade cooperation between our two countries also witnessed rapid progress. Bilateral trade volume rose more than 4 times from 3.14 billion US dollars in 2000 to 17.6 billion US dollars in 2005, with a trade surplus of 8.1 billion US dollars in favor of the Philippines according to the statistics of China Customs. Among the ASEAN countries, the Philippines enjoys the fastest growing bilateral trade with China. Besides , the agricultural mechanical center aided and built by China has played an active role in promoting local agricultural production, and the China-Philippine cooperation in hybrid rice and corn would help the Filipinos realize the goal of food self-sufficiency. China also provided important support to Philippine infrastructure construction.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It serves long-term common interests of our two sides to further expand China-Philippine partnership. I believe that our two countries could cooperate well in the following fields:
First, we can further expand our bilateral trade. China- Philippine trade volume is expected to exceed 20 billion US dollars this year. If we can make joint efforts to tap into the full potential of our bilateral trade, it will be quite possible to achieve the 2010 goal of 30 billion US dollars ahead of time. China will continue to promote steady development of bilateral trade, so that the Philippines can enjoy more tangible benefits.
Second, both China and the Philippines are countries with large agricultural population; we share many similarities in the field of agriculture. This provides a broad prospect for our agricultural collaboration. By further expanding the cooperation in the plantation and multiple processing of hybrid rice, hybrid corn, coconut products, vegetables, etc., we can not only help the Philippines solve the problem of food shortage due to the increase of population, but also create millions of new jobs in the Philippines' rural areas, so as to increase the farmers' income.
Third, we will support infrastructure constructions in the Philippines. Infrastructure construction is of great importance to the Philippine economic development, and China is willing to render assistance as far as our capacity allows. At present, the North Rail Project, for which China has provided 900 million US dollars preferential loan, will soon enter the construction period.
Fourth, we will encourage investment in the Philippines and promote economic development of the Philippines. The Chinese Government is now carrying out active researches and encouraging Chinese enterprises to expand their investments in the Philippines. We will promote investments not only in large-scale cooperative projects, but also in middle-scale and small-scale projects. We will expand the fields of investment cooperation.
And lastly, we will vigorously carry out tourism cooperation between our two countries. The Philippines has rich tourism resources, and the potential of China-Philippine tourism cooperation is great. Last year, the number of Chinese tourists to the Philippines reached 100,000, two times more than that of the previous year. However, this number is still relatively small comparing with the total number of 32 million Chinese tourists who went abroad last year. If the number of Chinese tourists coming to the Philippines reaches 1 million, and each tourist spends 1000 US dollars, it will add totally 1 billion US dollars to the income of the Philippines. Last year, there were 1.5 million Chinese tourists in Thailand, and 800,000 in Singapore. In my view, the Philippines has richer tourism resources than Malaysia and Singapore. I believe the number of Chinese tourists to the Philippines will grow much bigger in the near future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China and the Philippines are neighbors separated only by a narrow strip of water, and have enjoyed a long-standing traditional friendship. Our two peoples are connected by blood. I am deeply convinced that with the joint efforts of the governments and peoples of our two nations, China-Philippine friendship and cooperation will surely bear fruits, and contribute not only to the common prosperity and development of our two countries, but also to the peace and stability of this region.
Thank you!
