Emerging economies contributing more
(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-21 07:56
As President Hu Jintao points out, China and other emerging economies are contributing more to global development
Editor's note: Cooperation by the emerging economies will benefit themselves and contribute more to world peace and prosperity, a commentary of Xinhua News Agency says. The following is the full text.
Now is definitely not the best time in human history.
There is the aftermath of the international financial crisis, the fragile world economic recovery, the political unrest in West Asia and North Africa and the catastrophic multiple disaster in Japan, to name but a few tragic current events.
In such cloudy circumstances, the world is confronted with a series of daunting challenges. How can we maintain peace and stability? How do we sustain development? How do we realize common prosperity?
At this crucial time, China hosted last week a summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a quintuplet of major emerging economies known as BRICS, and the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, a non-governmental and non-profit platform for discussions on key Asian and global affairs.
Speaking at the two occasions, Chinese President Hu Jintao shed significant light on the challenges and opportunities for Asia and the world, presented China's stance and charted the course ahead for lasting peace and prosperity.
A comprehensive assessment
As Hu noted at the two conferences, in the past decade, the world has experienced "major development, major changes and major adjustments".
While the trend of peace, development and cooperation gained stronger momentum and brought valuable development opportunities to all countries, regional and global problems stubbornly persisted, such as the North-South development imbalance, climate change and energy security among many others.
During the past 10 years, the gap between developed and emerging economies narrowed, and the international landscape moved closer to multi-polarity. Economic interdependency deepened, and the West-led global economic governance model cried for reform. Cooperation among developing countries boomed, and a multi-tiered package of cooperation mechanisms, such as the G20 and BRICS, came into being.
Meanwhile, as the impact of the recent financial mayhem lingered, world economic recovery remained haunted by uncertainties. Rich countries cranking up their money-printing presses only further complicated the picture, as did the continued political turbulence and warfare in some West Asian and North African countries.
All this indicates that both challenges and opportunities exist in the contemporary world and proper approaches are needed to tackle them. At such a challenging and potentially rewarding moment, China spelled out its strategic vision.
A constructive stance of China
In light of extensive and in-depth analysis, Hu unequivocally presented China's stance - to unswervingly defend peace and stability, promote common development, boost international exchanges and cooperation and strengthen the BRICS partnership.
"Peace and stability form the prerequisite and foundation for development," he said. It was the overarching responsibility of every national government and leader to maintain world peace and stability and ensure the well-being of its people.
The international community should seek peaceful settlement of international disputes, back multilateralism and international cooperation, respect the diversity of civilizations and pursue common progress.
Common development was the safeguard of long-term steady growth of the world economy. Under current circumstances, "the biggest imbalance in the world economy is the development imbalance between the North and the South and the most fundamental problem in the world economy is the inadequate development of developing countries," he said. In order to realize common development, the international community should put in place a fair and effective global development system, establish fair, just, inclusive and well-managed international monetary and financial systems, and set up a just and equitable international free trade system.
To bolster international exchanges and cooperation is the inevitable demand of the times as nations across the world pursue common development while grappling with global challenges. World players have become unprecedentedly closely interlinked, and an in-the-same-boat spirit serves the interests of all.
Fostering partnerships is an important way for emerging economies to enhance their status and play bigger roles. The past decade witnessed the BRICS-led collective rise of developing countries. The BRICS cooperation mechanism has proved contributive not only to their own development but to world peace and development. Thus BRICS members should continue deepening their cooperation and striving for more practical achievements.
An honorable spirit of Asia
Prominent in the past decade was the development and progress of Asia, a continent boasting a long and rich history and also thriving in the contemporary world.
In 1990, overall Asian output accounted for less than 15 percent of the global total. Twenty years later, Asia's share surpassed 28 percent. Asian economies were among the first to stabilize and recover in the wake of the international financial wipeout and economic meltdown, and have now become major engines for world economic growth.
Behind this extraordinary accomplishment, said the Chinese president, was a multifaceted Asian spirit, including an unyielding spirit seeking self-improvement, an innovative spirit of breaking new ground, an open and inclusive spirit of learning from others and a solidarity spirit of helping each other in difficult times.
"We need to respect diversity of civilizations and promote good-neighborly relations... We need to transform the development pattern and promote all-round development... We need to share development opportunities and meet challenges together... We need to seek common ground while shelving difference and enhancing common security... We need to champion mutual benefit and deepen regional cooperation," he said.
The Asian spirit is a collective treasure of the Asian peoples. As long as Asians stick to this honorable tradition, they will make more and larger contributions to world peace and development. That is what the world can learn from Asia.
A global contribution by China
In the 21st century, China has become increasingly integrated into the world. As Hu said, "China's development is part of the world development and the better China develops, the greater the contribution it will make to the world."
The past decade bore witness to the steady and rapid growth of China's economy. The sixth largest economy 11 years ago with a total economic output of $1.15 trillion became the second largest in 2010 with an annual economic output exceeding $5.8 trillion.
In the past 10 years, China imported an annual average of $687 billion worth of goods and created over 14 million jobs in other countries and regions. In 2010, China achieved a 10.3 percent gross domestic product growth and became a leading driver of world economic recovery.
At the same time, however, China remains the largest developing country in the world, still subject to a variety of serious problems in population, resources, the environment and many other aspects and to a painful lack of adequate balance, coordination or sustainability in its development. "China has a long way to go before it can achieve modernization and common prosperity for all its people," Hu said.
The Chinese government has recently rolled out its 12th Five-Year Plan to guide its 2011-2015 socio-economic development. The blueprint underscores China's efforts to promote economic restructuring and social inclusion, as the Asian giant has set its targets at a sustained, steady and relatively fast economic development and a harmonious society.
"China will continue to advocate peace, development and cooperation, and remain committed to the independent foreign policy of peace, the path of peaceful development and the win-win strategy of opening-up," Hu said. "China welcomes the participation of all countries in its development endeavor. We will share development opportunities with other countries, and expand the dimensions of opening-up. We will contribute to the development of the region and the world through our development and share prosperity with people around the world."
Without doubt, with a more steady development, a more harmonious society, a more advanced system of institutions and a more open stance to the outside world, China will not only enhance the well-being of its 1.3 billion people, but make greater contributions to world peace and prosperity.
As both China and the world embark on a new journey of development, the Chinese stance on peace, development, prosperity and progress, as delineated by Hu, will cast a significant and far-reaching influence upon the ongoing and upcoming efforts to boost international cooperation, bolster world economic growth and foster lasting peace and common prosperity of the world.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2011-04/21/content_12366649.htm
