Your Excellency President Medvedev,

Dear Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to join you in the beautiful city of Yekaterinburg and exchange views with you on major issues of common interest and ways to promote cooperation and development of our four countries. Let me first express sincere thanks to President Medvedev and the Russian Government for the kind invitation and thoughtful arrangements.

We live at a time when the trend toward a multi-polar world and economic globalization is gaining momentum. Science and technology are advancing by leaps and bounds, and countries are increasingly interdependent. Enhanced dialogue and deeper cooperation for win-win progress has become the main approach in handling international affairs. On the other hand, however, the international financial crisis is still spreading and deepening, protectionism of various kinds is on the rise, the world economy has slid into recession, and the North-South gap is widening. We are faced with such prominent issues as climate change, food security, energy and resource security, and public health security. Global challenges such as terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and organized transnational crime remain as severe as ever.

As major emerging markets, BRIC countries account for 42 percent of the world's population, 14.6 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and 12.8 percent of global trade. Our combined contribution in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms to world economic growth exceeds 50 percent. The four countries have different national conditions, but we all shoulder the important mission of maintaining world peace and jointly managing traditional and non-traditional security threats. We all have the heavy responsibility of accelerating economic and social development and improving people's livelihood. And we all face the major task of safeguarding the rights and interests of developing countries and advancing reform of the international financial system.

Within just a few years, we have, through our collective efforts, turned BRIC countries from an economic concept into a new platform for international cooperation. Today, BRIC countries have become an important force in the international community, receiving worldwide attention. The current situation has presented us with both new development opportunities and unprecedented challenges. We should seize the historical opportunities, strengthen unity and cooperation, and jointly safeguard the overall interests of developing countries. Let me in this connection make the following proposals for the future cooperation among us:

First, enhance political mutual trust. We are all emerging countries with influence on global affairs and important forces in maintaining regional and international peace and stability. We should make full use of the existing mechanisms and deepen political trust through dialogue and exchanges, so as to set in the world an example of mutual respect and consultation on an equal footing.

Second, deepen economic cooperation. Given our respective advantages in resources, market, labor force and science and technology, our four countries have much to offer one another. We should be innovative and make our economic cooperation stronger, broader and more fruitful. In addition to economic and trade cooperation, we may, in view of the need to tackle climate change, establish a partnership on scientific and technological cooperation and conduct joint research and development in new energy and other hi-tech sectors, so that we can together cultivate new economic growth areas.

Third, intensify people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Our four countries are blessed with a long history and rich culture, and our four peoples enjoy a traditional friendship. We should actively expand exchanges and cooperation in culture, education, health, tourism and sports and promote mutual understanding among the people. We should forge close friendship and partnership among people of various sectors and foster strong public support for deeper and all-dimensional cooperation among the four countries.

Fourth, promote mutual learning of experience. Each of our four countries has found a development path suited to its national circumstances. This represents a common asset of human society. We should respect each other's choice of development path, share development experience, learn from each other's development model and share our experience with other developing countries on a voluntary basis. We should also strengthen dialogue, exchanges and cooperation with other parties in an open and transparent manner.

Dear Colleagues,

The world economy is facing challenges of unprecedented severity. To actively address the international financial crisis and restore world economic growth is a major task for our four countries and countries around the world. Our four countries all took an active part in the G20 financial summits and made important contribution to their success. We should now step up coordination and work for the comprehensive and effective implementation of the outcomes of the summits. To this end, I suggest that we focus our efforts in the following areas:

We should be committed to an early recovery of the world economy. We should overcome difficulties and strive to be the first to emerge from the international financial crisis. This will not only serve our own interests, but also contribute to world economic recovery. While tackling the international financial crisis, we should address those structural problems hindering our mid- to long-term economic development, transform development pattern, and raise the quality and level of economic development in the context of promoting world economic recovery. We must keep our markets open, draw on our complementary strengths and expand economic cooperation and trade. We should firmly oppose protectionism, jointly safeguard the normal and orderly flow of commodities, services and people and bring about comprehensive and balanced outcomes at the Doha Round negotiations at an early date.

We should be committed to reform of the international financial system. A fair, just, inclusive and well-managed new international financial order serves as an institutional guarantee for sustained development of the world economy. It is consistent with the historical trend and meets the fundamental interests of all parties. We should work out programs to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) and increase the representation and voice of developing countries so as to objectively reflect changes in the world economic pattern. We should improve the international financial regulatory regime and ensure that developing countries can effectively participate in the Financial Stability Board and other international financial regulatory bodies. We should improve the international monetary system, strengthen the regulatory mechanism for the issuance of reserve currencies, steadily develop a more diverse international monetary system and maintain relative stability of the exchange rates of major reserve currencies.

We should be committed to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We should continue to call on the international community to avoid neglecting the issue of development or cutting back input in development due to the financial crisis, and pay special attention to the impact of the crisis on developing countries, the least developed countries in particular. We should call on all parties to continue their efforts to implement the MDGs and urge developed countries to follow through on their commitments of official development assistance. We should work for positive outcomes at the UN High-Level Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development to be held in the latter half of this month, and continue to help other developing countries effectively cope with challenges as our ability permits.

We should be committed to food security, energy and resource security, and public health security. While doing our utmost to counter the international financial crisis, we should adopt a long-term and coordinated approach, and properly manage other outstanding issues that affect development, particularly those concerning climate change, food security, energy and resource security and public health security. These issues bear on the well-being and overall interests of people of all countries. We should scale up input in agriculture, develop advanced technologies, curb market speculations, increase food aid, and intensify agricultural and food cooperation. We should speed up the development of clean and renewable energies, establish a framework for the research, development and diffusion of advanced energy technologies, and promote diversified energy supply. We should strengthen information exchange, share experience in epidemic prevention and control, promote the development and sharing of vaccines, and carry out cooperation in pandemic disease prevention and control.

Dear Colleagues,

The international financial crisis has brought enormous difficulties and grave challenges to China. To counter the impact of the financial crisis and maintain stable and relatively fast economic growth, China has resolutely adopted a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy, and formulated a package plan to expand domestic demand and promote stable and relatively fast economic growth. These measures are paying off, as evidenced by the positive signs of the economy. Despite great difficulties, China has kept the exchange rate of renminbi basically stable, and signed bilateral currency swap agreements worth 650 billion yuan with relevant countries and regions. We have taken an active part in the Global Trade Finance Program of the International Finance Corporation and supported the increase in IMF resources. The array of measures taken by China in response to the international financial crisis will benefit not only the Chinese economy, but also the economy of the region and the world at large.

Dear Colleagues,

In the face of the complex international challenges, let us enhance cooperation and work together, with a strong sense of responsibility and mission, for a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity.

Thank you.

(Source: www.fmprc.gov.cn)