Cooperate Hand in Hand to Build a Harmonious World

(Feb 26, 2008, Kolkata)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

I'm very pleased to attend the 15th Annual International Steel Seminar & Exhibition 2008. On behalf of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in India and in my own name, I would like to extend warm congratulations and wish the seminar and exhibition a great success.

I must say this seminar can serve as a very good platform for the major stake-holders of steel industry, producers and users, exporters and importers, to interact with each other and promote cooperation with each other. Today I want to use a few minutes to brief you on China's economic development and China-India relations, especially in the field of economic cooperation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year marks the 30th anniversary of China's adoption of reform and opening-up policy. During the past 30 years, China has witnessed remarkable achievements in its economic development. China's GDP has increased by 15 times from US$216.5 billion at the outset of the reform and opening-up to US$3.4 trillion in 2007, with the GDP per capita reaching US$2500. China's import and export volume has gone up from US$20.6 billion to US$2.17 trillion in 2007, raising China's global ranking from No.32 to No.3. By the end of 2007, China's accumulative foreign exchange reserve has totaled up to US$1.53 trillion, becoming No.1 in the world. China's booming economy is not only improving the livelihood of the Chinese people, but also injecting new vitality into the global economy. The growing domestic demand in China has made it the third biggest import market in the world, creating plenty of opportunities in manufacturing and employment for its trade partners. Besides, high-quality and low-price Chinese commodities are bringing greater benefits to consumers in those countries by reducing expenditure and improving consumption of import countries. China's economic development is characterized by peace and harmony through opening-up in the context of win-win situation. It provides all countries an opportunity of mutually beneficial development.

China and India are linked by mountains and rivers geographically and share long-standing friendly exchanges in the history. During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in 2005, China and India established the Strategic Cooperative Partnership ushered in a new stage of development. When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited India in November 2006, the two countries signed a joint declaration, which laid out "Ten-Pronged Strategy" for deepening the strategic cooperative partnership. Undoubtedly, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China last January further set up a new milestone in our bilateral relations. China-India relationship has gone beyond bilateral dimension and acquired global and strategic importance.

In recent years, under the joint efforts of both sides, China-India economic and trade cooperation has entered into an unprecedented development period with an annual growth of more than 30%. According to the statistics of China's Customs, bilateral trade volume totaled US$38.65 billion in 2007, up by 55.5% comparing to the previous year. China has become India's second largest trade partner. During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China, both sides upgraded the target of trade volume for 2010 from US$ 40 billion to US$60 billion. It shows how great it is the potential for our bilateral economic cooperation.

In recent years, the rapid development of world economy not only provides a favorable economic atmosphere for world steel industry but also creates good opportunities for the major steel makers, such as China and India. China now ranks No. 1 in the world in terms of steel production. Its steel production has reached 489 million tons in 2007. In 2006, China, for the first time became a main steel exporter. In 2007, China's net export went up to 54.88 million tones, up by 58% on a y-o-y basis.

In tandem with this good momentum, China's steel industry is also faced with challenges and problems such as low concentration and stagnating merger in industry, the low optimization of steel commodity and export structures, as well as the growing negative impacts on resources and environments caused by high consumption of energy and high pollution, etc. The challenges that China's steel industry is confronted with are also universal ones. To meet those challenges, steel industries around the world should join their efforts and intensify their cooperation with a view to improve the efficient use of resources, reduce pollution, improve market competitiveness and achieve environment friendly and sustainable development.

Ladies and Gentlemen, peace and development are the themes of today's world. The economic globalization calls us to strengthen cooperation and coordination. As a developing country, China always pursues an independent foreign policy of peace, adheres to peaceful development and an opening-up policy of mutual benefit and win-win result. It is a set policy of the Chinese Government to develop China-India Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity. There is great complementarity between China and India in the field of economic and trade cooperation, including the steel industry. The Chinese side is ready to work with India to create favorable conditions for investments to enter into each other's country and seek new ways and new fields to expand economic and trade cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. China and India are partners of development instead of rivals. There is enough space for the two countries to grow and prosper together. I firmly believe that the rising of China and India economically not only benefit the people of our two countries, but also will contribute to the peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the whole world.

Finally, I would like to once again to wish the highest success of this seminar and exhibition.

Thank you.