President Jean-Pierre Lafon,

Secretary General Vicente Gonzales Loscertales,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is truly a pleasure for me to attend the Seventh World Expo International Forum. On behalf of the Chinese Government, I warmly welcome all the guests to the forum and sincerely wish the forum a complete success. The series of World Expo International Forums are important events to promote the ideal of the World Expo and expand its influence. Participants to this forum will have extensive and in-depth discussions under the theme of "shaping urban future with global wisdom." This is of major importance in substantiating the content of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai and making it a big success.

The World Expo is a great event showcasing the fruits of human civilization. Each World Expo is an important stage that bears witness to the development of human civilization. The history of the World Expo is a history of mankind moving from backwardness to progress, from closeness to openness, from conflict to cooperation and from material worship to the pursuit of science.

The famous saying that "Everything begins with the Expo" well illustrates the huge influence of the World Expo on mankind. It is through the World Expo that steam engine, light bulb, telephone, film, television, automobile, airplane, spacecraft and other major inventions have made their way to different parts of the world and profoundly changed the way people live. The American writer Helen Keller visited the World Expo 1893 in Chicago through mere touch. Later in her world-renowned article Three Days to See, she wrote with great passion that if she "had the power of sight for just three days," she would save her most precious third day for the museum. She wrote, "This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world, past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man's progress, the kaleidoscope of the ages."

The World Expo has facilitated extensive exchanges on a global scale and provided opportunities and platform for all countries to broaden their vision and display themselves. It has vigorously advanced the process of internationalization and modernization for all countries. The World Expo transcends the boundary of faith, geography and race, breaks the shadow of turbulence, conflict and war, and gathers people of all countries in the big World Expo family of peace, progress, friendship and cooperation. It opens a window for mankind to take a new look at the world and guides people to shift from worshiping objects to caring for the human being, from conquering nature to respecting nature, and from pursuing growth only to promoting sustainable development.

Time goes by and the World Expo has gone through 158 years. It has accumulated experience in the past one and a half centuries, and is still young and full of vitality. It has not only greatly stimulated people's initiative and enthusiasm for the creation of material wealth, but also left behind a valuable legacy for cultural development.

First, hold high the banner of progress. To achieve progress is the constant pursuit of mankind. It is also the main theme running through the whole development process of the World Expo. The World Expo has always followed the trend of development and progress of mankind and moved along with the times. It has given expression to mankind's latest interpretation of the concept of "progress". This holds the key to the long-term prosperity of the cause of the World Expo.

Second, promote the spirit of innovation. Innovation provides an inexhaustible source of human progress and it is in the very soul of the World Expo. History shows that the innovation spirit advocated by the World Expo has sparkled human wisdom for countless times and helped people overcome difficulties and challenges. The role it plays is irreplaceable in the economic and social development of the world.

Third, stick to the path of opening-up. Openness and inclusiveness is the only way leading a country or a nation to strength and prosperity. It is the inherent mission of the World Expo to promote interaction and integration of different cultures and strengthen exchanges and cooperation. The open spirit demonstrated by the World Expo, which is consistent with the trend of human development and progress, has opened ever broader prospects for the World Expo.

Fourth, advocate the ideal of harmony. It is the everlasting aspiration of the World Expo family to build a harmonious world that values peace, puts people first and is based on mutual respect and love among the people and harmonious co-existence of man and nature. The spirit of the World Expo is consistent with the pursuit of the international community for a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity, and thus represents the common pursuit of humanity. What Victor Hugo wrote in the Paris Guide for 1867 of "Down with war! Let there be alliance! Concord! Unity!" still resounds today.

Ladies and gentlemen,

China has enjoyed a long-term relationship with the World Expo. Some Chinese proposed hosting a World Expo in China back 100 years ago. The history of contacts between China and the World Expo coincides with the history of China going from a closed and semi-closed society to one opening up in all fronts, and from weakness and poverty to strength and prosperity.

The first World Expo was held in London in 1851 at a time when China's feudal rulers were totally unaware of the rapid development of science and technology or the historical changes to the political and economic patterns of the outside world. They regarded Western science and technology as "clever but useless tricks" and called the World Expo a "competition of strange things." Xu Rongcun, a merchant from the Dent & Co., a company established by English businessmen in Shanghai, was the only Chinese who participated in the Expo, and his "Yung Kee Huzhou Silk" won him gold and silver prizes. China's later involvement with the World Expo was eye-opening to many Chinese. It exposed them to modern civilization and aroused in them a strong sense of mission to learn from and catch up with the West. China first officially attended the World Expo in Philadelphia, the United States in 1876. In the delegation was a Chinese merchant named Li Gui who wrote A Journey to the East based on his experiences at the Expo. The book became a classic work that opened a window to the world for the Chinese. Ever since then, people of vision in China had wished not only to attend the World Expo, but to host it in this country. One of them was Zheng Guanying, a representative reformist in the early years of modern China, who, in his Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity, proposed for the very first time the idea of Shanghai hosting the World Expo. In 1910, a young man by the name of Lu Shi'e wrote a fictional novel A New China, envisaging how a universal exposition was held in Shanghai's Pudong area 100 years later. Liang Qichao, a leader of the Reform Movement of 1898 in China, also expressed his desire for Shanghai to host the World Expo so that his motherland, "the sleeping lion", "can be woken up from the deep dream and cured of its protracted illness". But, in those days, to host the World Expo was nothing but a remote dream for the Chinese nation, as it had to grapple with domestic problems and foreign invasion and declining national strength.

Since the founding of New China, especially the introduction of the policy of reform and opening-up, China has seized the historic opportunities and realized a three-decade-long rapid growth, with remarkable achievements in its socialist development. China is opening wider to the outside world. It is back on the stage of the World Expo, and its increasingly important role in the Expo is widely welcomed and appreciated by the international community. Since 1982, China has attended 12 World Expos. In 1993, it acceded to the Convention Relating to International Exhibitions, thus becoming the 46th member of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE). The World Horticulture Expo successfully held in Kunming, Yunnan Province of China in 1999 displayed China's ability to host a comprehensive World Expo. In 2001, China formally announced Shanghai's bid for World Expo 2010, showing the world the ardent desire of the 1.3 billion Chinese people to host the event. The next year, the BIE decided to choose Shanghai as the host of the World Expo 2010. This brought into reality the century-old dream of the Chinese nation.

For the first time, the World Expo will be hosted in a developing country, China, which has the biggest population in the world. This fully demonstrates the strong vitality of the World Expo and the vision and far-sightedness of the BIE. We are confident that the World Expo to be held in China will provide opportunities for China and the world at large, and will exert a far-reaching impact on efforts to promote the ideal of the World Expo across the globe, and advance world peace and development.