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| Speech at the Opening Session of the China-Finland-Russia Economic Forum |
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| 2008-11-10 10:40 Department of Foreign Affairs |
Qiu Hong
Assistant Minister of Commerce
Marina Convention Center, Helsinki
30th October 2008
Honourable Minister Paavo Vayrynen,
Honourable Minister Elvira Nabiullina,
Your Excellency Ambassador Ma Keqing,
Chairs of round tables,
Dear delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to come to the beautiful city of Helsinki to attend the China-Finland-Russia Economic Forum. On behalf of the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, I would like to express my sincere thanks to our host, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of the Republic of Finland, for its great amount of meticulous work in the run up to the Forum. My thanks also go to the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation for the great support for this Forum. I shall also take this opportunity to welcome all the delegates from Finland, Russia and China. I believe that this Forum will provide an effective platform for all of us and create opportunities that lead us to mutually beneficial cooperation and common development. On this special occasion, I would like to take the chance and share with you a brief introduction to China’s economy at present and our support to cooperation between the three countries.
In 1978 China incepted our reform and opening-up drive. Ever since then, over the past three decades, the Chinese economy has maintained a fast growth with an average annual rate of over 9.7%, much higher than the 3.3% average growth rate of the world economy. By the end of last year, the aggregate size of the Chinese economy has become the world’s forth largest. Its import and export value increased from 20.6 billion US dollars to 2173.8 billion US dollars, the third largest in the world. Foreign exchange reserves have surged from 167 million US dollars to more than 1.8 trillion US dollars, the biggest in the world. China has utilized foreign capital with a cumulative value of 780 billion US dollars, making itself the largest FDI recipient country in the world in cumulative terms. According to World Bank, over 10% of world economic growth and over 12% of international trade was contributed by China. Per capita disposable income of Chinese people and net income of rural population have both increased by roughly 5.7 folds.
As a huge market composed of 1.3 billion consumers China sees a remarkable space for economic growth. With political and social stability, China is on the stage of accelerated industrialization, urbanization, internationalization and market-oriented economic development. Domestic consumption and investment has kept growing, supply of labor and financial resources remains abundant, and the advantage of low cost remains evident. Chinese businesses are becoming more competitive and vigorous.
Of course, we are clearly aware that as the largest developing country, China still has a long way to go before it achieves modernization. Problems such as imbalances in economic and social development between urban and rural areas as well as across different regions, the extensive pattern in economic development, demographic, resource and environmental strains as well as problems beleaguering employment, social security and income distribution remain to tackle. The Chinese government will strive to address these problems and promote comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development.
This year marks the 30 years’ anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. Opening to the outside world is one of the most powerful drivers behind China’s remarkable economic success. It is a consensus reached across the Chinese society that we should unswervingly adhere to the opening up policy and develop mutually beneficial and friendly cooperation with countries and regions around the world. China will continue to deepen such cooperation and create an enabling policy and institutional environment.
Ladies and gentlemen,
China and Finland, China and Russia maintain good relations. Both Finland and Russia are China’s important economic and trade partners in Europe. In recent years, our ties have been developing smoothly and our cooperation has scaled new highs.
Firstly, our bilateral trade value has been growing steadily. In 2007, the trade volume between China and Finland broke through the threshold of $10 billion for the first time, reaching $10.4 billion, up by 28%. Finland has been China’s largest trading partner in Northern Europe for four successive years and China has been Finland’s largest trading partner in Asia for five years running. The trade value between China and Russia amounted to $48.2 billion in the same year and is expected to exceed $50 billion this year. China stands as Russia’s third largest trading partner and second largest source of imports.
Secondly, investment across the three countries is getting more dynamic and sizeable. While major Finnish companies, such as Nokia, Stora Enso, UPM-Kymmene, KONE, and Mesto, continue to increase their investment in China, small- and medium-sized Finnish enterprises are also actively exploring the Chinese market. In November 2007, China and Russia signed the Agreement on the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, providing the legal basis for the investment cooperation between the two countries. Large Russian enterprises, including Russia Oil Company, Russia Natural Gas Company (Gazprom), State Nuclear Corporation (Rasatom), Russia Aluminum Group and Joint-stock Financial Corporation (Sistema), are all active investors in China. In the first half of this year, the paid-in investment by Russian companies in China totaled $690 million and $1.43 billion by Chinese companies in Russia.
Thirdly, the areas of cooperation between us are expanding continuously. China and Finland have achieved encouraging results in trade, investment and technological cooperation in areas such as telecommunication, papermaking, non-ferrous metal and environmental protection. Considerable headway has also been made between China and Russia in a number of major projects covering areas such as oil and natural gas, electricity, nuclear power, Mars exploration, nanotechnology, energy conservation and environmental protection. Trade and economic cooperation between China and Russia and between China and Finland have provided a broad space for future cooperation among the three parties.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Chinese, Finnish and Russian economies have distinctive features and advantages. Today representatives and businesspeople of our three countries gather together to discuss possibility and potentiality for cooperation especially in the area of forestry, energy and environment, logistics and transport.
I hope by this, we will explore new opportunities and find the ways to play our respective advantages of resources, market, financing and technology so as to carry forward our mutual investment and economic and technical cooperation. We believe by working together, we will face up and we can face up to the challenges brought about by the international financial crisis and the challenges to our economies.
Finally , I’d like to wish all of us fruitful results and the Forum a great success.
Thank you.
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