Working Together for an Asia-Pacific Community with A Shared Future

　　

　　Chinese President  Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the 27th Asia-Pacific Economic  Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting via video link, in Beijing,  capital of China, Nov. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

　　BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) --  Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled "Working Together  for an Asia-Pacific Community with a Shared Future" at the 27th APEC  Economic Leaders' Meeting on Friday in Beijing via video link.

　　Working Together for an Asia-Pacific Community with

　　A Shared Future

　　Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping

　　President of the People’s Republic of China

　　At the 27th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting

　　Beijing, 20 November 2020

　　The Right Honorable Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,

　　Dear Colleagues,

　　It  gives me great pleasure to join you via video link. I wish to thank  Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the Malaysian government for hosting  the meeting.

　　The  past 30-plus years since the inception of APEC has seen rapid evolution  of the international landscape and profound transformation of global  governance. It has also witnessed a sea change in the Asia-Pacific  region.

　　Over  the past three decades and more, APEC cooperation has kept deepening  and made substantial progress on many fronts. Guided by the Bogor Goals,  we have steadily enhanced regional economic integration. We have  advanced trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in tandem  with economic and technical cooperation, with a view to realizing mutual  complementarity and balanced development of the “two wheels” of APEC  cooperation. We have advocated open regionalism and developed an APEC  approach of voluntarism, consensus-building, flexibility, pragmatism and  incremental progress. Over the years, the Asia-Pacific has weathered  two financial crises and lifted over one billion people out of poverty.  It has become a leading and most dynamic powerhouse of the global  economy, playing an active role in building an open world economy,  upholding the multilateral trading system, and spearheading economic  globalization.

　　Three  decades on, both the world and the Asia-Pacific are experiencing  profound changes, a process further accelerated by COVID-19. The world  economy is in the doldrums. Economic globalization is encountering  headwinds. Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. Balancing  equity and efficiency, growth and distribution, and technology and  employment is getting more difficult. The wealth gap remains a common  sight. The global governance system faces new challenges. For the first  time in decades, the Asia-Pacific as a whole registered negative  economic growth. Protecting people’s health and reviving the economy are  two formidable tasks we have to take on. Where should Asia-Pacific  cooperation be heading? The answer bears on the development of our  region, the well-being of our people, and the future of the world at  large.

　　One  priority on this year’s APEC agenda is to unveil the post-2020 vision, a  pathway toward our goal of building an Asia-Pacific community. This  should be taken as a new starting point for us to begin another phase in  Asia-Pacific cooperation, sustain the strong momentum of development in  our region, and embrace a future of shared prosperity. Together, we can  build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future featuring openness  and inclusiveness, innovation-driven growth, greater connectivity, and  mutually beneficial cooperation.

　　First, we need to stay open and inclusive.  The world economy is like the Pacific Ocean around us — It admits water  from various rivers, and connects different parts of the world. As  such, it has acquired a vast magnitude and enormous vitality. The  approach of pursuing cooperation as equals and resolving differences  with mutual respect is what essentially makes economic development and  prosperity in the Asia-Pacific possible. Throughout the years, APEC has  committed itself to deepening regional economic integration and made  significant progress in implementing the Bogor Goals. It has also played  an important role in steering the evolution of the multilateral trading  system. Yet it must be noted that free and open trade and investment  cannot be achieved overnight. It is important that the Asia-Pacific  should remain the bellwether in safeguarding peace and stability,  upholding multilateralism, and fostering an open world economy. We must  stay as determined as ever to support the multilateral trading system  with the World Trade Organization at its core, promote free and open  trade and investment, and make economic globalization more open,  inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all. Continued efforts are needed  to press ahead with regional economic integration for the early  realization of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). China  welcomes the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership  (RCEP), and will favorably consider joining the Comprehensive and  Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

　　As  we continue to work on free and open trade, we should pay no less  attention to economic and technical cooperation. We need to further  implement the APEC Strategy for Strengthening Quality Growth and the  Action Agenda on Advancing Inclusion, and accommodate the concerns of  developing members. We need to address in particular the special needs  of women and some other communities, and support micro, small and  medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Such efforts will contribute to  inclusive and sustainable growth. China will host a seminar on advancing  economic inclusion through trade and investment to look for suggestions  on how trade and investment policies could deliver broader benefits to  people. China looks forward to working with all parties to follow up on  those suggestions.

　　Second, we need to pursue innovation-driven growth.  The digital economy represents the future direction of global  development, while innovation has fueled the economic takeoff of the  Asia-Pacific. We need to proactively seize the opportunities of our  times and fully harness our region’s abundant human resources, solid  technological foundation, and enormous market potential to gain a new  competitive edge and open up new possibilities for the betterment of our  people’s lives. The APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap should be  implemented in full to spur the dissemination and application of new  technologies, strengthen digital infrastructure, and close the digital  divide. We need to improve economic governance and foster an open, fair,  equitable and non-discriminatory environment for businesses. This year,  China has conducted an APEC case study on smart cities, which we hope  will contribute to the formulation of guidelines on smart cities and  offer an example for innovative urban development across the region.  China calls for experience sharing among APEC members on how to control  COVID-19 and achieve economic recovery with digital technologies. China  also calls for improving the doing-digital-business environment,  energizing market players, and tapping the potential of the digital  economy. Such efforts will bring fresh impetus to economic recovery in  our region. Next year, China will host a workshop on digital  technology-enabled poverty alleviation, in a bid to unleash the role of  digital technologies in eradicating poverty in our region.

　　Third, we need to enhance connectivity.  Connectivity is a vital basis of regional economic integration and an  essential underpinning for interconnected development of the world. The  ongoing pandemic further highlights the importance of connectivity. We  need to continue to implement the APEC Connectivity Blueprint to  facilitate the smooth, safe and orderly flow of people, goods, capital  and data and achieve a seamlessly connected Asia-Pacific. China has  opened “fast tracks” with fellow APEC members like Indonesia, the  Republic of Korea, and Singapore to facilitate the movement of people  during the pandemic, and more will be done to complete a network of such  arrangements. In this connection, it is important to promote the mutual  recognition of the COVID-related health information of international  travelers. China is ready to take active and well-thought-out steps with  all other parties to set up “green lanes”, which will help make customs  clearance more efficient, unclog bottlenecks, and reconnect disrupted  links. We may also promote the creation of international cooperation  platforms on industrial and supply chains to ensure the safe and smooth  operation of industrial and supply chains in our region and beyond. We  need to pursue greater complementarity among the development plans and  connectivity initiatives of different parties to forge a bigger synergy.  On China’s part, we hope to work with all partners in high-quality Belt  and Road cooperation, which we believe will set up a bigger platform  for connectivity in the Asia-Pacific and inject a stronger impetus into  the economy of our region and the wider world.

　　Fourth, we need to promote mutually beneficial cooperation.  The Asia-Pacific economies have a high degree of mutual complementarity  and enjoy deeply intertwined interests. Our economic cooperation has  never been a zero-sum political game in which one gains at the expense  of the other. Rather, our cooperation has provided us with a development  platform to ensure what we each do can be mutually reinforcing and  beneficial to all. There is a Malay proverb that goes, “bukit sama  didaki, lurah sama dituruni”, which means to climb the hill together and  go down the ravine together. It aptly captures the spirit of our  Asia-Pacific family. COVID-19 serves as another reminder that only  solidarity and cooperation can enable us to prevail over challenges. We  need to deepen the Asia-Pacific partnership featuring mutual trust,  inclusiveness and mutually beneficial cooperation and follow the  approach of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared  benefits. We need to keep raising the level and scope of our regional  cooperation to achieve shared prosperity for the whole region. It is  important that we advance practical cooperation on the basis of  consensus, properly manage differences and disagreements, and keep  Asia-Pacific cooperation in the right direction to ensure APEC’s sound  development in the long run.

　　At  this very moment, fighting COVID-19 is the most pressing task for us  all. We must step up research and development of vaccines and related  exchanges, and work harder to make the vaccines a global public good to  improve their accessibility and affordability in developing countries.  For that purpose, China has joined the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access  Facility (COVAX). We support APEC in strengthening policy exchanges and  capacity building in the areas of public health and MSMEs. China has  made a telemedicine initiative to give people in poor and remote areas  access to timely and quality medical services. We hope these efforts  will contribute to anti-epidemic cooperation and economic recovery.

　　China  highly values the role of APEC. We will continue to support the  organization’s development, and with our root struck deep in the  Asia-Pacific, we will continue to serve its development and prosperity.

　　Colleagues,

　　This  year, the Chinese people have exerted strenuous efforts to score a  major strategic achievement in controlling COVID-19. Working with other  countries in these trying times, China has contributed its wisdom and  resources to the global fight against the coronavirus. It has shared  with various parties full experience on containment and treatment and  done its best to assist other countries and international organizations.  All these are among the concrete actions we have taken toward building a  global community of health for all. At the same time, we have  coordinated COVID-19 control with economic and social development at  home, and scaled up macro policy response so that the Chinese economy  could stabilize, pick up, and steadily upgrade. In the first three  quarters of this year, China’s GDP grew by 0.7 percent, on course to  register positive growth for the whole year. It is also worth noting  that by the end of this year, we will have lifted out of poverty all  rural residents living below the current poverty line.

　　The  recently concluded Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central  Committee adopted recommendations for formulating China’s 14th five-year  plan. The plenum underscored that China will finish building a  moderately prosperous society in all respects within the set time frame,  and will embark on a new journey next year toward fully building a  modern socialist country. Based on a scientific analysis of the new  stage of China’s development, we will stay committed to the new  development philosophy, and actively foster a new development paradigm  with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international  circulations reinforcing each other. China will build a new system of  open economy of higher standards and create a more attractive investment  and business environment.

　　To  conclude, China is ready to work with all other parties in the  Asia-Pacific to build and share a brighter future of peace and  prosperity for our region and get ever closer to the goal of a community  with a shard future for mankind.

　　I thank you all.、