Chinese President Xi Jinping called for efforts to create and fulfil an Asia-Pacific dream on Sunday saying that China’s economy will bring huge opportunities and benefits to the region and the world.
He made the remarks while addressing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit which attracted over 1,500 business people from 21 APEC member economies and 17 other countries and regions.
The Asia-Pacific has a strong impetus for development and a bright future with a rising standing in the world but the region now stands “at a crossroads”, Xi said.
He listed several challenges facing the region, such as lingering impacts of the international financial crisis, fragile recovery in some economies, the daunting tasks of raising economic equality and efficiency, as well as different directions and priorities in accelerating the regional economic integration process.
“The development prospect of our region hinges on the decisions and actions we take today,” he said. “We are duty-bound to create and fulfil an Asia-Pacific dream for our people.”
While elaborating the idea, the president said the dream was about acting in the spirit of the Asia-Pacific community and out of a sense of shared destinies, following the trend of peace, development and mutually beneficial cooperation, and jointly working for the prosperity and progress of the region.
He added the dream was about staying ahead of global development and making greater contribution to the well-being of mankind. The dream is also about having more economic vibrancy, free trade and investment facilitation, better roads, and closer people-to-people exchanges, the president said.
Moreover, the dream is about ensuring greater security and prosperity for the people and giving children a better environment to grow, work and live, he said.
To realise the Asia-Pacific dream, the region should redouble efforts to forge a partnership of mutual trust, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation and jointly build an open economy, Xi urged.
In addition, the region’s economies need to explore new drivers for growth and draw a blueprint for comprehensive connectivity, he said. Speaking of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), the president suggested the region remain committed to open regionalism while endeavouring to initiate the FTAAP.
Economies should “work for new economic institutions and regional cooperation architecture that are open, so that the door of the Asia-Pacific will always be open to the entire world,” he said.
As the fastest growing region in the world, Asia-Pacific accounts for 40 per cent of the global population, 57 per cent of the global economy and 48 per cent of the global trade.
Regarding development of the world’s second largest economy, Xi said that China’s economy had been growing steadily as a “new normal” of it had emerged.
Under the new normal conditions, he said, China’s economic growth had become more stable and been driven by more diverse forces while the Chinese economic structure has been improved and upgraded, heralding a more stable development prospect.
“The intensity of our endeavour to comprehensively deepen reform will determine whether we will successfully adapt ourselves to the new normal,” Xi told his audience.
The president said that to comprehensively deepen reform, China needs to stimulate the market vitality, broaden the path for innovation, advance opening-up at a higher standard, as well as improve people’s well-being and promote social equity and justice.
“Comprehensively deepening reform will not only liberate the productive force but also unleash the vitality of the society,” Xi said. “It will serve as a strong driving force for China’s economic and social development.”
He pledged that China would stay focused on managing its own affairs well and endeavour to bring more benefits to the Asia-Pacific and the world.
China is ready to work with other countries in promoting the building of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, pushing for the early operation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and getting more engaged with regional cooperation, he said.
“As its overall national strength grows, China will be both capable and willing to provide more public goods for the Asia-Pacific and the world, especially new initiatives and visions for enhancing regional cooperation,” Xi told the gathering.