On November 21, 2008, President Hu Jintao attended the APEC CEO Summit held in the Peruvian capital of Lima and delivered an important speech. Hu Jintao pointed out that there is distinctive diversity among APEC members and there is high dependency and strong complementarities among APEC members, and this has provided favourable conditions for us to intensify regional cooperation and jointly deal with challenges. The APEC members should join hands and jointly make unremitting efforts to promote sustainable development of the Asian-Pacific region and push to build a big Asian-Pacific family of lasting peace and common prosperity.

The APEC CEO Summit was held at the Ministry of Defense Convention Center in Lima, Peru. At 2:40 p.m. local time, President Hu Jintao, together with Jose Miguel Morales, Chairman of the APEC CEO Summit 2008, Juan Francisco Raffo, Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and other leaders, walked into the conference hall.

In the warm applause, Hu Jintao delivered an important speech titled "Make Joint Efforts Hand in Hand to Promote Economic Development". Hu Jintao pointed out that the international financial crisis is currently spreading from local areas to the whole world, from developed countries to emerging markets and countries, from the financial field to the field of the real economy, and it has had a severe impact on the economic development and the people's livelihood in various countries around the world. The situation is very grim. Effectively dealing with the international financial crisis, safeguarding international financial stability, and promoting world economic development bears on the prospects for global development and touches on the immediate interests of various countries. Recently, the G-20 Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy took place in Washington DC, and the meeting reached a broad consensus on how the international community should deal with the international financial crisis, promote world economic development, and reform the international financial system. At the crucial moment, countries in the world should enhance confidence, step up coordination and close cooperation, and quickly adopt effective measures, including all necessary financial and monetary means, to contain the expansion and spread of the financial crisis, stabilize international financial markets as soon as possible, alleviate the damage from the financial crisis on the real economy as much as possible, promote world economic growth, and safeguard the common interests of people in various countries around the world.

Hu stressed that the international community should conscientiously sum up the lessons of the financial crisis. It should conduct necessary reform on the international financial system and create a system environment conducive to the healthy global economic development on the basis of full consultation among all stakeholders, by grasping the direction for building a new international financial order which is fair, just, inclusive, and orderly, and by upholding the principle of being comprehensive, balanced, and progressive and striving for substantial results.

Hu said that China will continue to promote the construction of a world economic system that promotes sustainable development, an international financial system which is inclusive and orderly, an international trade system that is unbiased and reasonable, and a fair and effective global development system. China will continue to take into account the proper concerns of partners and especially developing countries in cooperation as China brings about its development, support the international community in helping developing countries enhance their own development ability and improve their livelihood, support pushing for the liberalization and facilitation in trade and investment, support various countries in jointly safeguarding the security of the world economy, and promote common development and prosperity of various countries.

Hu said that since this year, China has actively coped with complicated changes in the international economic environment and the severe challenges of major natural disasters and strengthened macro-regulation and control in a timely manner. China's economy has maintained relatively rapid growth, the financial sector has operated steadily, and the fundamentals of the Chinese economy have not changed. However, since September, with the expansion and spreading of the financial crisis, difficulties confronting China's economic development have become more and more evident. In view of this situation, in order to boost economic development, the Chinese government has strengthened macroeconomic regulation and control in a timely manner and decided to follow a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately relaxed monetary policy. Recently, the Chinese government has introduced even more effective measures to expand domestic demand. The implementation of these measures will certainly give a strong impetus to China's economic development. The steady and relatively rapid development in China's economy itself is an important contribution to safeguarding international financial stability and promoting world economic development.

Hu Jintao pointed out that as one of the regions in the world with the most vitality and potential, the Asian-Pacific region has become an important force for driving world economic development and is having a bigger role and influence in the world economic setup. At the same time, issues like the grim world economic situation, prominent problems in energy security and food security, the gaining ground of trade protectionism, and the deterioration of the ecological environment threaten the healthy and stable economic development of the Asian-Pacific region. APEC members should work together hand in hand and jointly push the economy of the Asian-Pacific region to move forward.

Hu stressed that the business community is a main force of the world in the economic field and is an important force to advance healthy and stable development of international economic and trade relations. In dealing with the international financial crisis and promoting healthy and stable development of the world economy, the business community can play an important role. Practice in world economic development tells us that it is extremely important to give good play to the role of various types of enterprises and especially multinational corporations in safeguarding stability in international financial markets and promoting healthy and stable development of the world economy. Enterprises are to pursue economic results, and this is the inevitable requirement of the existence and development of enterprises. Under the conditions of in-depth development of economic globalization, enterprises should establish the concept of global responsibility, include social responsibility in their business strategy on their own, abide by the laws in the country where the enterprises operate and international common business practices, improve their management models, and pursue unity of economic returns and social results. The governments should step up guidance and supervision and create a good environment for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibility through drawing up and improving laws.

Nick Reilly, representative of the APEC Business Advisory Council and President of General Motors (GM) Asia Pacific thanked President Hu Jintao for attending the summit and delivering an important speech. He said that the Chinese government adopted a series of economic stimulus policies in response to the current international financial crisis. This is the move right to take in the current economic turmoil. It is hoped that the other APEC members do the same. China attaches great importance to scientific development and strives to build a harmonious society. China has adopted courageous measures in the fields of energy security and environmental protection and plays an important role in the international arena. He expressed the hope that the business communities of APEC members could work closely with the governments to jointly deal with the challenges.

Hu’s wife Liu Yongqing, Ling Jihua, Wang Huning, Dai Bingguo and other leaders also attended the event.

The APEC CEO Summit is an important forum held during the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. About 1,200 business leaders participating in the CEO Summit attended the lecture.