Message from His Excellency Ambassador Chen Shiqiu
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese people have worked very hard to make the country strong through their own efforts, and have made significant achievements in the cause of home building, thus markedly increasing the country's comprehensive strength and rapidly raising the people's living standard. These achievements have impressed the whole world and helped to raise China's international standing.
The year 1998 has not been an easy one for China. It witnessed the most severe floods in the history of the People's Republic. An across-basin flood hit the Yangtze River, the third-longest river in the world. In northeastern China, the floods which hit the Nenjiang River and Songhuajiang River were the biggest this century. Such a serious natural disaster was a test both on the leadership of the Chinese Government and on the unity of the Chinese nation.
Now we can say with pride that the Chinese people have withstood the test. Under the direct command of China's leaders, the military and civilian personnel across the country united as one, the country has scored a decisive victory against the flood. More than 100 million people were mobilized to fight the flood. Such a large-scale mobilization is unprecedented in China and rarely seen in the world. It has demonstrated to the world the great willpower and character of the Chinese people, as well as the uniting force of the Chinese nation.
The rising waters brought heavy losses to the afflicted areas, affecting the lives of 200 million people and causing direct economic losses estimated at 166 billion yuan (approximately US$20 billion). Now as the flood waters began to recede, people in the disaster areas are restoring production and rebuilding homes, renovating damaged projects, making appropriate arrangements for the life of the flood victims and preventing the possible spread of epidemics in the wake of the disaster. It is important for the Chinese people that the final victory will be won against the flood.
The year 1998 is also a cornerstone in the history of China as it links the past and ushers in the future. We successfully convened the First Session of the 9th National People's Congress, which laid down the legal procedures to set China's national tasks, the strategic trans-century goals which were put forward by the Chinese Communist Party's 15th National Congress. It also elected the new leaders of state organs, which provided important organizational assurances to the realization of the strategic goals. Moreover, the implementation of the institutional restructuring plan is another step forward for the administrative structure reform. On these bases, the Chinese people will continue to work hard to advance the cause of reform, opening-up and modernization drive to a higher stage.
The year 1998 is also a year of serious challenges for China's reform and development. Since the second half of last year, some Asian economies have been hit by financial turmoil, and some have thus fallen into crises. The Asian financial crisis has broken the normal order of world economic development and slowed down the global trade activities, thus, bringing many difficulties to China's reform and development programs. Under the complicated internal and external economic environments, the Chinese Government has calmly analyzed the situation and introduced a series of important measures, including stimulating the domestic demands, exploring the internal and external markets, and keeping the RMB exchange rate stable.
With the concerned efforts of the whole country, the reform programs are being carried out steadily, and the national economy is maintaining the momentum of development, with the GDP topping 3,473 billion yuan (approximately $442 billion) in the first half of the year, showing a 7 percent gain over the same period of the previous year. The RMB exchange rate remains stable, and foreign trade is maintaining a steady growth. From January to July, exports enjoyed a 6.9 percent increase, while the import and export volume totaled $179.5 billion and foreign currency reserves amounted to $140 billion. Meanwhile, foreign investment is also in the process of recovering. From January to July, new contracts of direct foreign investment amounted to $28 billion, a 7.25 percent increase of the corresponding period of last year.
However, problems still exist in the course of economic and social development. Many difficulties need to be solved, that is, improving the economic efficiency of state-owned enterprises, stimulating the domestic market, increasing foreign trade, raising the quality and level of foreign investment, ensuring the basic living standard of laid off workers, building up reemployment networks and reforming the social insurance structure. China is now at a very crucial juncture of economic development. The attaining of this year's economic target growth of 8 percent has a bearing not only on the consistent development of the national economy and the maintenance of social stability, but also on the improvement of the confidence of people all over the country to overcome the present difficulties as well as that of foreign investors on the prospects of China's economy.
The period from now until 2010 is crucial to the realization of the third step of the strategic goals of China's economic development. The world today is full of opportunities and challenges. China will seize the opportunities and brave all challenges, consistently implementing its opening-up policy, safeguarding national economic security, and actively participating in international economic cooperation and competition, so as to raise the social productive forces, the overall national strength and the people's living standard.
The current world structure is evolving toward multipolarization, which is not only conducive for weakening and curbing hegemonism and power politics, but also for promoting the establishment of a fair and just new international order. It helps to bring a peaceful, stable, and prosperous world into the new century. China's development needs not only the long-term and concerted efforts of the entire Chinese people, but also a stable surrounding environment and the prosperity and stability of the world. The Chinese people treasure world peace. China adheres to its independent foreign policy of peace, opposes hegemonism and power politics, supports international justice and is ready to maintain and develop friendly relations and cooperation with all countries in the world. China will consistently devote itself to regional and world peace. China will always be a trustworthy friend to the peoples of the world. China will never seek hegemonism.
All ASEAN members are China's friendly neighbors. At the end of 1997, China's President Jiang Zemin held an historical meeting in Kuala Lumpur with the leaders of the nine ASEAN countries. They signed a Joint Statement to establish the Partnership of Good-neighborly Relations and Mutual Trust Oriented Toward the 21st Century. Guided by this Joint Statement, China and ASEAN countries are ready to open up cooperation in all fields. The friendly exchanges and mutual understanding between the two sides are being deepened continuously. The cooperation of mutual benefits has not been weakened but strengthened during the Asian financial crisis. The urgent tasks and challenges China and ASEAN face together are to overcome the crisis and recover the Asian economy as soon as possible. Despite the temporary difficulties, China will make concerted efforts with ASEAN countries to overcome this difficult period.
China and Indonesia, two big Asian countries, are friendly neighbors. We share similar or identical views on many international and regional issues and are both confronted with the important task of maintaining and promoting a sustained and stable development of our respective economies. We should further enhance mutual understanding and expand mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to establish a long-term, sound and stable Sino-Indonesia relation which is not only in the interest of the two countries but also exerts positive influence on the peace and stability of Asia and the world at large.
Since Indonesia was hit by the financial crisis, China has offered assistance to the country in a spirit of sincerity. China has taken an active part in the IMF-sponsored international program of assistance to Indonesia, and has provided a total of $520 million as capital relief funds to Indonesia under the IMF operational budget. China has also supported the IMF-led international financing scheme and has committed further assistance of $300 million in the form of loans to Indonesia through bilateral arrangement. In addition, China has donated $3 million worth of medicine and agreed to provide $200 million in export credit facilities to the Indonesian Government.
All the above reflect China's sincerity to help its neighbors in plight. The Chinese Government hopes that all nationalities in Indonesia enjoy harmony and stability, and that the Indonesian economy gets back on the track of healthy growth. China believes that with the joint efforts of our two sides, the friendship and cooperation between China and Indonesia will continue to be consolidated, and our partnership of good-neighborly relations and mutual trust will be further strengthened in the coming 21st century.