On September 21, 2012, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the ninth China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit and 2012 Forum on China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in Nanning, Guangxi and delivered a speech entitled Work Together Towards Deeper Cooperation and Sustained Development.
In his speech, Xi extended, on behalf of President Hu Jintao and the government and people of China, the warmest congratulations on the opening of the Summit and Forum and the sincere welcome to all the participating leaders of the ASEAN countries and other distinguished guests present at the meeting. Xi said since 2004, the China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit have been held eight times and attended by an accumulative 42 Chinese and ASEAN state leaders, more than 1500 ministers and VIPs and over 300,000 business visitors. The achievements we have jointly made over the years fully show that the Expo and Summit, built jointly by China and the ten ASEAN countries, are not only a major platform for effective cooperation in economic, trade and other areas, but also a big booster for the development of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Bringing tangible benefits to the enterprises and people of the two sides, they are playing a more and more important role in China-ASEAN cooperation.
Xi pointed out that with a time-honored friendship, China and ASEAN countries opened a new chapter in their relations in the early 1990s with the establishment of dialogue relations. With our political trust strengthening steadily, our trade growing rapidly, our economic integration deepening, and our connectivity picking up speed, China-ASEAN cooperation holds out a bright future of increasingly solid and extensive development. We are always committed to friendship and good-neighborliness, resulting in enhanced mutual understanding and mutual trust; we are always committed to mutually-beneficial development, resulting in growing gains in trade and economic cooperation; we are always committed to common development and steadily improving cooperation mechanisms in the various fields; we are always committed to working closely together to overcome difficulties and challenges. What has happened proves and will continue to prove that China and ASEAN are good neighbors enjoying solidarity, friendship and mutual trust, and that we are good partners with mutually complementary advantages and capacity for win-win cooperation. The friendship and good neighborly cooperation between us have not only brought about economic and social development in our own countries and delivered enormous benefits to our peoples, but also contributed significantly to sustained and steady economic development in East Asia and Asia as a whole.
Xi said since the founding of the People's Republic of China over 60 years ago, and particularly since the country introduced the reform and opening-up program over 30 years ago, China has indeed made remarkable progress in its modernization drive. Nevertheless, China's international status as the world's largest developing country, China's independent foreign policy of peace, and China's basic state policy of peaceful development and opening to the outside world all remain unchanged. The more progress China makes in development and the closer its links with the region and the world, the more important it is for the country to have a stable regional environment and a peaceful international environment. Having gone through numerous vicissitudes in modern times, we are deeply aware of the importance of development and the preciousness of peace. We will be all the more determined to go for peaceful development, follow the win-win strategy of opening-up, and implement the policy of building friendship and partnerships with neighboring countries.
Xi emphasized that China will always be a staunch force for peace and stability in the region and the world at large. We are firm in safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and are committed to resolving difference with neighbors concerning territorial land, territorial sea and maritime rights and interests peacefully through friendly negotiations. We will never seek hegemony, nor behave in a hegemonic manner. By peaceful development, we mean to develop ourselves by upholding world peace and to uphold world peace through our own development.
Xi said at present, global economic growth remains sluggish with the European debt crisis continuing unabated and uncertainties and destabilizing factors existing side by side. Despite many difficulties and challenges, Asia has on the whole maintained the momentum of a fairly rapid growth. As friendly and close neighbors and strategic partners, China and ASEAN need to size up the situation and work together to deepen cooperation for sustained development. To this end, Xi made a four-point proposal: First, work more vigorously to improve on the FTA development. Second, work more vigorously to deepen cooperation in two-way investment. Third, work more vigorously to advance connectivity. Fourth, work more vigorously to promote social and people-to-people exchanges.
Xi finally pointed out that with economic globalization and regional integration developing in greater depth, the future destinies of China and ASEAN have never been so closely linked with each other. It is our common strategic choice to further China-ASEAN strategic partnership. China will work with ASEAN countries in jointly ushering in a better future for China-ASEAN friendship and cooperation (see another article for the full text of the speech).
At the opening ceremony, Myanmar President U Thein Sein, on behalf of the ASEAN countries, delivered a speech, expressing thanks for Vice President Xi Jinping to attend the summit. He also spoke highly of the policy expounded by Xi in his speech on China's willingness to work with ASEAN to push forward cooperation and common development and prosperity, expressing the belief that with the joint efforts of both sides, China-ASEAN cooperation will enjoy a bright future and broad prospects.
Prime Minister of Laos Thongsing Thammavong, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Mohamad Yassin and Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong among others attended the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony was chaired by Vice Chairman Yu Ping of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT). Guo Shengkun, Secretary of CPC Guangxi Committee, made welcome remarks. MOC International Trade Representative & Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng delivered a speech on the tenth anniversary of the launch of the China-ASEAN free trade area. The opening ceremony was attended by about 1,500 people including responsible officials from relevant government departments of China and ASEAN, representatives of international and regional organizations, and business people, experts and scholars from China and ASEAN countries.
The Summit was sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, CCPIT and People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and was co-organized by the ASEAN Secretariat and China-ASEAN Business Council.