Hu makes 4-point proposal to boost world economy
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Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday put forward a four-point proposal on reviving the world economy at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Singapore.
In a speech entitled "Strengthen Confidence in Cooperation and Revive the World Economy," Hu called for adopting a multi-pronged approach to turn the crisis into an opportunity, laying a solid foundation for the full recovery of the world economy.
The Chinese president proposed to make greater efforts in four areas.
First, strongly promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.
"We must continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and oppose protectionism in all its manifestations, particularly the unreasonable trade and investment restrictions imposed on developing countries," he told the gathering of some 1,000 business leaders from the Asia-Pacific region.
"We should advance the Doha Round (of trade) negotiations on the basis of locking in the existing achievements and respecting the Doha mandate. We need to speed up the settlement of the remaining issues and work for early comprehensive and balanced outcomes in the negotiations in order to achieve the goals of the development round," he said.
The developed members of APEC should adopt effective measures to meet the forum's Bogor Goals for liberalized trade in the region on schedule next year, so as to inject new vitality into sustained economic and trade growth, Hu added.
Second, Hu called for pushing forward regional economic integration through multiple channels.
"We should continue to explore diverse ways to accelerate economic integration in the Asia-Pacific. We should promote economic structural reform with a focus on regulatory reform in a voluntary, flexible and pragmatic fashion," said the Chinese president.
"We should further improve the business environment and facilitate cross-border business operations. And we should continue to improve trade, telecommunication and transportation networks and strengthen infrastructure development in the region so as to provide the material foundation and institutional guarantee for regional economic integration," Hu told the business leaders.
Third, renewed effort was required to advance reform of the international financial system.
"We should follow a comprehensive, balanced, incremental and results-oriented approach and work for a fair, just, inclusive and well-managed international financial system and an institutional environment conducive to sound development of the world economy," said the Chinese president.
"We should continue to increase the representation and voice of developing countries in international financial institutions, speedily implement the quantitative reform targets set at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, and improve decision-making processes and mechanisms in international institutions," said Hu.
"We should move forward reform of the international financial supervisory and regulatory system and improve the most fundamental principles and goals of supervision and regulation," he added.
"We should encourage stronger international cooperation in financial supervision and regulation, expand the coverage of supervision and regulation and move quickly to adopt supervisory and regulatory standards that are widely acceptable," Hu said.
Fourth, the transformation of economic development patterns with innovative ideas needed to be accelerated.
"We should speed up scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading, develop the green economy and the circular economy, and rely on scientific and technological advancement to build up the internal dynamism of the world economy," Hu said.
He also called for intensifying economic and technical cooperation, reducing man-made barriers to technology transfer, narrowing the technology gap, especially the green technology gap, between developed and developing members and avoiding a new "green divide".
It was incumbent upon developed members to help developing members gain access to the capital and technology needed for the transformation of economic development patterns, thus contributing to a balanced and orderly development of the world economy," said the Chinese president.
Hu arrived in Singapore on Wednesday for a state visit and the 17th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.
The APEC CEO Summit, which opened here on Friday, provided a platform for top CEOs in the Asia-Pacific region to hear from APEC leaders and international strategy and business leaders on ways to address the present economic crisis.
The theme of this year's APEC CEO Summit is "Rebuilding the Global Economy: Crisis and Opportunity." It focuses on how to counter the international financial crisis, revive the world economy and strengthen enterprise management.
