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Distinguished guests,
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Good Afternoon！
Thanks for having me here! I should say the warm atmosphere at this forum is dispelling the chill of Brussels’ winter. Before I get started, on behalf of the Chinese Mission to the EU, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the Europe-China Forum. It surely gives me a great pleasure to discuss with you on how China and the EU can join hands and deepen constructive cooperation in face of increasing challenges.
We are living at a time of momentous changes unseen in a century, changes that are consequential to the world, to our times, and to history. With the COVID-19 pandemic still dragging on, the geopolitical tensions and the food and energy crisis, today’s world lacks the proper momentum for economic recovery. Against the difficulties currently facing the global economy, China insists on providing new opportunities for the world with new development. As the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has underscored, China will embark on the new journey of building a great modern socialist country and achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through the Chinese path to modernization. In this process, China will stay committed to advancing high-standard opening-up, stay on the right track of economic globalization, promote an open world economy, and expand converging interests with other countries. Hand in hand, we want to create a favorable environment and cultivate new drivers for global development with countries around the world.
President Xi Jinping pointed out more than once that China always regards Europe as a comprehensive strategic partner and stands ready to work with friends from the European side to foster the China-EU partnerships for peace, growth, reform and civilization, and that China supports the EU’s strategic autonomy and wishes for Europe’s stability and prosperity. Just today, European Council President Michel paid an official visit to China and had fruitful meetings with President Xi and other high-level Chinese leaders. The two sides had in-depth exchanges on China-EU relations and international and regional issues of common concern, during which, they shared opinions, strengthened strategic communication and coordination, built a series of important consensus and pointed out the direction for future cooperation. Since this year, President Xi Jinping has met with a number of European leaders. These meetings have enhanced the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides, deepened our practical cooperation in various fields, and are also highly important for the sound development of China-EU relations at large, and injected more stability into the complex and turbulent international situation.
Numbers can best speak to the strong economic ties between China and Europe. Last year, bilateral trade exceeded 800 billion US dollars for the first time, and the cumulative two-way investment exceeded 270 billion US dollars. EU investment in China had a sharp increase of 121.5%, reaching 7.45 billion US dollars. From January to October this year, two-way trade stood at 711.3 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 6.3%. We are glad to see that it’s not only the trade number that has increased, but the quality of our economic cooperation elevated and the breadth expanded, notably in such areas as green development, digital transformation, infrastructure, connectivity, etc.
The fact that China-European economic and trade cooperation has always maintained strong momentum indicates that bilateral cooperation enjoys great resilience and potential, because it is firmly rooted in solid public support, extensive common interests and similar strategic needs. China-EU cooperation, by sending out the positive signal of economic globalization and win-win cooperation, not only benefits the two sides, but also injects confidence and positive energy for global economic recovery.
Dear friends, China and Europe do differ in terms of social system, historical background, cultural tradition and stage of development. But as two major global forces, markets and civilizations, our shared interests far outweigh our differences, and we shoulder the common responsibility of maintaining global peace and stability, and of promoting common development and prosperity. Digging deep into the root cause of the current economic difficulties, it is the damaged international cooperation that has led to the disruption of industrial and supply chains. In face of such scenario, the so-called "decoupling" and "breaking the chain" will only exacerbate rather than solve the problem, and should never become the mainstream.
Ladies and gentlemen,
At the UN General Assembly last year, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which upholds the concepts of prioritizing development and putting people first, and aims to build a global development community and accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 SDG. Since its launching, the initiative has been endorsed by more than 100 countries and international organizations, including the UN, and more than 60 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI, giving developing countries new hope for prosperity.
Talking about the Global Gateway Programme. China welcomes and supports all initiatives aimed at assisting developing countries in the construction of infrastructure and promoting common development. I’d like to emphasize that, in promoting cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative, China has always adhered to the principle of common consultation, joint construction, and shared benefits. Under the BRI cooperation, China has helped relevant countries and regions build a large number of high-quality livelihood projects including infrastructure. The World Bank estimates that the BRI initiative will lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty in the countries en route. In this area, China and Europe share many common viewpoints on the general direction of connectivity, and China is willing to collaborate with the European side to develop third-party market cooperation and leverage our respective advantages to assist developing countries in accelerating their green transformation, improving their scientific capacity and developing innovative technologies, and jointly promoting connectivity and sustainable development in relevant regions and around the world.
So, I sincerely hope that, through platforms like the Europe China Forum, we can discuss the ways to seek greater synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Gateway Programme, and unleash greater cooperation potential under this framework, so that we can jointly promote greater progress of China-EU cooperation and contribute to sustainable development around the world. I believe that as long as we respect each other, seek common ground while reserving differences, exchange and learn from each other, and cooperate for a win-win result, China-Europe cooperation will have a broader horizon and a brighter future.
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Once again, I wish the Europe-China Forum a complete success. Thank you.
