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BOAO, Hainan, April 24 (Xinhuanet) -- China on
Saturday expounded its commitment to Asian cooperation and economic integration
and suggested that its neighbors seize the opportunities arising from the
country's rapid economic growth.
"China's development cannot be achieved in isolation
of Asia, and Asia's prosperity also needs China," said Chinese President Hu
Jintao while addressing the annual conference of an influential international
forum on Asian development, which opened in China's southernmost island province
of Hainan Saturday morning.
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| Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a
keynote speech to the opening session of the annual conference 2004 of the
Boao Forum for Asia in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 24.
(Xinhua Photo) | More than
1,000 political VIPs, government ministers, business leaders and scholars from
35 countries and regions attended the 2004 annual conference of the Boao Forum
for Asia (BFA), the third of its kind since the non-governmental forum's
founding in 2001.
"A developing China generates important opportunities
for Asia," Hu told the audience among whom there were not only Asian political
leaders such as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Pakistan Prime Minister Mir
Zafarullah Khan Jamali, but also dignitaries from outside Asia including Czech
President Vaclav Klaus, former US President George Bush and former Mexican
President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce De Leon.
Having maintained an incredible average annual
economic growth of 9.4 percent over the past two and a half decades, China is
now the largest importer in Asia and its direct investment in the restof Asia
has been rising at an average annual rate of 20 percent inrecent years. In 2003,
over 20 million Chinese nationals traveled overseas, for whom other Asian
countries and regions were leading destinations.
"China has, and will continue to make a positive
impact on Asiain the area of development," said Hu. "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 the Asian economy, giving rise to a new type of partnership characterized
by mutual benefit, mutual complement and mutual assistance," he added.
With an increasing number of Asian countries and
regions starting to realize the importance of bilateral, regional cooperation
and economic integration to Asia's future development,the Boao Asian Forum has
taken "Asia searching for win-win" as a permanent theme for its annual
conferences.
The two-day BFA 2004 annual conference will host
nearly 20 plenary sessions, roundtable meetings, concurrent sessions and
luncheon sessions focusing on Asian cooperation, with main topics like
"Post-Cancun multilateral trading system and Asian economic integration," "Asian
IT industry and standards," "Energy: challenges and cooperation," "Supply chain
and made in Asia" and "Asian cultural exchange and cooperation."
In his 20-minute speech, the Chinese president also
outlined five steps China plans to take to strengthen its cooperation with Asian
neighbors, namely, enhancing friendship and political trust and
good-neighborliness; expanding and deepening bilateral economic cooperation;
accelerating regional economic integration; promoting cultural interaction and
personnel exchanges, and facilitating security dialogue and military-to-military
exchanges.
This was the fourth year in a row for the Boao Asian
Forum to have China's head of state or top government leader participate inits
founding ceremony or annual conferences. Long Yongtu, secretary-general of the
forum, thanked the Chinese leadership fortheir "great support to the forum all
the time since its founding."
The steady development of the Boao forum has
demonstrated the "fervent desire" of the Asian people for a win-win scenario
throughcloser cooperation, said Hu in his speech.
The BFA has picked Boao, a picturesque small coastal
town with only 20,000-strong residents, as the permanent venue for its annual
full meetings, though each year it also hosts smaller-sized conferences,
seminars and meetings in other places around Asia. Enditem |
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