On the morning of November 15, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Spanish King Juan Carlos attended the opening ceremony of the first China-Spain business summit in Madrid. Hu delivered an important speech at the summit, stressing that it is the first time for China and Spain to hold such a high-level forum of entrepreneurs and the summit is of great importance to promote the bilateral economic and technological cooperation. He expressed hope that the businesses of China and Spain will expand cooperation covering more areas and in more fields so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

At about 10:35 a.m. local time, the summit opened in the grand hall of the Madrid conference palace. Amid warm applause Hu delivered an important speech.

Although China and Spain are far from each other, businessmen of the two countries started trade as early as in the 16th century and opened the world-famous maritime Silk Road, which helped promote the east and west exchanges and exerted great impact upon human civilization and progress. Since 1973 when China and Spain established diplomatic ties the bilateral relations have been developing steadily and the bilateral exchanges and cooperation keep expanding. The economic and technological cooperation between China and Spain is conducive to promoting the economic and social progress of both countries and brings about tangible benefits to the two peoples, Hu said.

Hu pointed out that over the past 27 years China has been unswervingly implementing reform and opening up and concentrating on pushing forward socioeconomic development with big increase of social productivity and steady improvement of people's living standards. Today the Chinese economy is experiencing a new round of growth. China has set its development goals. We plan to spend another 15 years to raise China's GDP to about US$4 trillion and per capita GDP to about US$3,000 and develop the economy, improve democracy, advance science and technology, make culture more prosperous, build a more harmonious society and further raise people's welfare. China is still a developing country and has lots to do in terms of industrial development, infrastructure construction, city development, environmental protection and social progress. China has 1.3 billion of population which not only provides rich labor resources but also generates sustainable consumption demand with the rise of people's living standards. China has a high national savings rate and enjoys social and political stability. All those create favorable conditions for China to realize sustainable and relatively rapid growth. China's development will bring about huge market demand. China is readjusting the economic structure, changing economic growth pattern and implementing the western development strategy and the strategy of rejuvenating the Northeast old industrial base. We are actively preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai Expo. I believe that China's development will generate great business opportunities for companies worldwide including the Spanish companies. I hope the business community of countries in the world makes use of their capital, human resources, management, technology and other advantages to actively explore the Chinese market.

Hu stressed that China adheres to the basic national policy of opening up and implements the opening strategy of achieving mutual benefit and win-win results. China will further improve laws and regulations and strengthen intellectual property right protection in a bid to creating a sound environment for foreign businesses to invest in China.

Hu said that looking into the future China and Spain enjoy promising prospects of economic and trade cooperation. We support the businesses of both countries in strengthening cooperation, jointly exploring the third-party markets, expanding cooperation and realizing mutual benefit and win-win results in greater areas. The Chinese government expects to continue providing facilitation to expand the cooperation of businesses of both countries. China is ready to take tangible measures to encourage Chinese businesses to import as many Spanish commodities as possible and support competitive Spanish businesses in exploring the Chinese market so as to strike trade balance between the two countries in the process of development.

Hu lastly noted that China and Spain agree to raise the bilateral relations to the level of all-round strategic partnership. It marks a new development stage of bilateral relations and creates enabling conditions for bilateral economic and technological cooperation. I believe with the positive support of the two governments and with the joint efforts of the business communities of both sides China-Spain economic and trade cooperation will make breakthroughs and inject dynamism into the comprehensive development of bilateral relations.

King Carlos also made a speech at the summit. He first of all thanked Hu for attending the opening ceremony of the summit. The summit opened during President Hu's state visit to Spain. During President Hu's visit the two countries declared the establishment of all-round strategic partnership and will become important partners. Hu's visit will greatly promote the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Carlos said.

Carlos noted that today the elites of Chinese and Spanish entrepreneurs gather together in Madrid, which clearly shows to strengthen bilateral economic and trade relations enjoys promising prospects. The businessmen of both countries should take this opportunity to build up mutual understanding and trust and expand cooperation in various fields. He expects this summit will make important contribution to broadening Spain-China cooperation.

China-Spain business summit is designed to increase mutual understanding between businesses of China and Spain and strengthen bilateral cooperation covering greater areas and in more fields. More than 1,000 Chinese and Spanish entrepreneurs attended the summit.