Gleneagles, 7 July 2005

Prime Minister Tony Blair,

Distinguished Colleagues,

I am very pleased to meet all of you in Gleneagles of Scotland. It is the challenges we face together and the desire to address the host of global issues that have brought us here. Let me begin by thanking Prime Minister Tony Blair for the kind invitation accorded us.

Peace and development remain the dominating theme of our times. With world multipolarization and economic globalization moving ahead with accelerated pace while science and technology making dazzling progress with each passing day, countries are presented with rare opportunities of development. At the same time, we are also faced with numerous challenges posed by both traditional and non-traditional security threats such as unending regional conflicts, widening wealth gap, terrorism, environmental degradation, financial risks and deadly transmittable diseases. They touch on the political, economic, social and other aspects of human endeavor and bear on peace, stability and prosperity of the world. The world economy, which is experiencing a fairly robust growth now, also faces many problems that we need to address together.

At this moment of opportunities and challenges coexisting side by side, working hand in hand towards a common future through win-win cooperation has become a shared aspiration of the world's people and a broad consensus of the international community. As leaders of countries that carry significant weight in international political and economic affairs, you have on your shoulders an important responsibility to promote peace and development in the world. We should seize the opportunities and show the international community our firm resolve to work for a common future through win-win cooperation in the following aspects.

First, we should make concerted efforts to maintain a steady world economic growth. This is the most effective way to ensure the well-being of the world's people, which also promotes peace and stability in the world. Together, our countries account for about 75% of the global total economically. We can do a great service to a balanced and sustained development of the world economy if we do a good job with our own economies. To this end, we should commit ourselves together to take effective fiscal and monetary policies, readjust our economic structures and promote a balanced and sustained development of the world economy.

Second, we should step up policy consultation and push for solutions to the deep-rooted problems that impede world economic development. We should facilitate reforms to international financial institutions with a view to creating a fair, stable and efficient financial environment for world economic growth. We should back up the development of the multilateral trading regime and cultivate a fair, just, reasonable and open trading environment for world economic growth that delivers benefit to most countries, developing countries in particular. We should also work together to stabilize the international energy market and create an adequate, secure, cost-effective and clean energy environment for world economic growth.

Third, we should carry out result-oriented cooperation to implement the Millennium Development Goals. This year is an important year for international cooperation geared to development. Development will be the theme of the 60th UN Anniversary Summit and other important international events. We should work actively to reach a new global consensus. Developed countries should come up with workable plans to make good on their pledges concerning funding, debts and market access, particularly with respect to the 0.7% ODA to GNI target, and explore ways to establish new development financing mechanisms. Africa's development deserves closer international attention. The assistance to African countries needs to be increased in real terms and the debt relief pledges should be delivered at a quicker pace. China will continue to play its part in supporting and assisting the development of African nations. Developing countries should actively promote structural reforms and adjustment at home to create a better environment for development. The UN Secretary General's report has put forward many good proposals in this regard, and I look forward to fresh progress in international development cooperation on such a basis.

Fourth, we should deepen North-South dialogue aimed at establishing a new type of partnership. Continued economic globalization has put before us many new tasks, with strengthened North-South cooperation to cope with global threats and challenges being a principal one. We should conduct North-South dialogue on the basis of equality, flexibility, pragmatism and consensus building and strive for a win-win result by drawing on each other's strong points and going for mutually beneficial cooperation. I applaud this outreach session and believe, at the same time, that dialogue like this should aim to gradually put in place a new type of long-term and comprehensive North-South partnership.

Distinguished Colleagues,

The questions of climate change and international trade on the agenda of this outreach session bear on the immediate interests of all countries and the prospect of a sustainable development of the world economy.

Both as an environment issue and development issue, climate change, in the final analysis, falls in the category of development. Though countries differ in perceptions of the problem and in choices of the countermeasures, they share a basic consensus for cooperation, dialogue and concerted efforts in meeting the challenges brought by climate change. All countries, in their efforts to achieve development, should act responsibly for their peoples and people in the rest of the world, take into full account the tolerance of resources and the environment, balance the development needs of the present with those of the future, and actively step up international cooperation against the challenges brought about by climate change.

What I want to emphasize here is that many developing countries, China included, are not well-developed economically and their peoples' living standards remain fairly inadequate. For them, achieving economic development and raising the quality of people's life is the most urgent task. Helping developing countries to get developed quickly is an important requirement for sustained economic development in the world. The energy consumption in the developing countries is very low at the moment in per capita terms. With continued economic and social development, their energy consumption is bound to increase. But, as we understand, the economic development pattern characterized by high energy consumption, high pollution and high emission is unsustainable and needs to be corrected quickly and resolutely.

To enhance international cooperation on climate change, it is necessary first to uphold the guiding role of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol and observe such principles as "common but differentiated responsibilities" enshrined in the Convention. Developed countries should take the lead in reducing the emission level and help developing countries with capacity building to tackle climate change. Secondly, it is essential to address climate change in the context of sustainable development, reverse ways of production and consumption that are not sustainable, improve the eco-environment by conserving resources and reducing pollution and follow a path of development that features harmony between economic growth on the one hand and population, resources and the environment on the other. Thirdly, it is necessary to give scope to the role of science and technology. Result-oriented cooperation should be strengthened to expedite the advancement and dissemination of relevant technologies, energy technologies in particular and to facilitate the mutual reinforcement of economic development and environmental protection. In this connection, the proposals made by the UK side are quite constructive. Here, I would like to add three specific suggestions.

First, explore the possibility of an effective technology dissemination mechanism. This mechanism, while consistent with the laws of the marketplace, should allow substantial decreases in the cost of technology transfer in the larger interests of tackling climate change and achieving global sustainable development, so that more developing countries can have access to affordable yet advanced environmental-friendly technologies.

Second, conduct mutually beneficial technological cooperation. As many critical energy technologies required to tackle climate change are still at the R&D stage, it is necessary to expedite the efforts for early breakthroughs by relying on the synergy of all members of the international community. China is ready to step up cooperation of various forms with other countries, including demonstration projects and joint R&D centers in China, to develop advanced technologies for clean energy and greater energy efficiency.

Third, ensure funding availability. At present, worldwide funding for alleviating climate change falls far short of what is needed. It is suggested that a financing expert group be established to study ways of increasing multilateral, bilateral and private-sector financing, streamlining procedures for examination, approval and use of funds and providing funds to back up developing countries' efforts against climate change.

Achieving sustainable development is a key objective of China's economic and social development program. By advocating a scientific approach of a people-oriented, fully coordinated and sustainable development and by stressing a coordinated development between urban and rural areas, among different regions, between economic and social development, and between domestic development and opening up, and a harmonious development between man and nature, thus allowing us to stay on course of a right development path characterized by greater production, prosperous life and sound environment, we mean to prolong the momentum of our development and increase its sustainability and to contribute to sustainable economic development worldwide.

As a responsible developing country, China has taken a series of policies and measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emission in tackling climate change. Acting on the scientific approach of development, we have sped up efforts to readjust the economic structure, transform the mode of economic growth, rein in energy-guzzling industries, and build towards a national economy that is structurally resource-effective and energy-effective. We have worked hard to improve energy mix, develop high-quality energy sources, encourage the exploitation of new and renewable energy sources, promote clean energy, and improve energy-use efficiency by widely applying energy saving technologies. We have also pushed for the development of a circular economy aimed at building a resource-effective and environmental-friendly society. China has come up with laws, regulations and policies, including medium-term and long-term special programs for energy conservation and the Law on Renewable Energy in recent years, and made initial achievements in the area of greenhouse gas emission mitigation. China is now working on a national strategy on climate change to keep up efforts at greenhouse gas emission mitigation while working with other countries to actively address the issue of global climate change.

Distinguished Colleagues,

The development of the world's multilateral trade regime is now at a critical moment. Rising trade barriers, frequent trade frictions and growing trade protectionism in particular, are hampering its healthy development and creating new uncertainties for global economic growth. The establishment of an open, fair, rational and transparent international multilateral trade regime that is non-exclusive and non-discriminatory contributes to the stability and growth of regional and global trade, promotes a balanced and sustained expansion of world economy and serves the interests of all parties.

The Doha Round is one that is dedicated to development. As developing members account for 85% of WTO membership, negotiations should take full account of the development level and tolerance of the developing members and leave them with necessary policy leeway in terms of special and differential treatment to implement development strategies consistent with their own conditions. The Doha Round should aim to earnestly push trade liberalization and progressively expand market openness. We should work together to make the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference a success and pave the way for completing the Doha negotiations in 2006. We should seize the opportunities, show good faith, sort out the differences and expand the common ground so as to push the negotiations forward with a flexible and pragmatic attitude.

The Chinese Government has been a supporter for and active participant in the multilateral trading regime. Since joining the WTO, China has strictly lived up to its commitments by improving and updating its laws and regulations and increasing its openness to the outside world. China, which has become the third largest importer globally and the largest in Asia, promises a tremendous market potential. With a total import and export volume of US$1154.8 billion in 2004, China has become an important growth engine for world economy. The development goal of China is to quadruple the country's 2000 GDP by 2020, reaching US$4 trillion with a per capita GDP of some US$3,000. This quadrupling will apply to both the scale of the Chinese market and its aggregate demand. I am confident that, during this process, many countries in the world will benefit from China's development and find for themselves huge business opportunities. Not only the Chinese people will become better off from a more prosperous China, the whole world will enjoy the opportunities of development it brings along. As its economy expands, China is bound to make even greater contribution to world economic growth.

Let us do what the trend of times and the will of the people require of us, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation for the win-win results and work together to advance mankind's lofty cause of peace and development.

Thank you.