—The Shanghai Expo will be a grand gathering for unity of people around the world. To date, 192 countries and 50 international organizations have confirmed their participation, making it a truly unprecedented global event that will be remembered as the most-extensively participated Expo in the World Expo history. We have done our best to seek the widest possible participation, and to win understanding and support from governments and people of all countries. Our endeavor has given true expression to the great World Expo spirit that transcends the differences in faith, race and geography.

—The Shanghai Expo will be a great event that promotes the development of human civilization. "Better city, better life" is the theme of the Shanghai Expo. Aristotle the philosopher once said, "Men come together in cities in order to live; they remain together in order to live the good life." Cities have made good life of people possible. Yet in the process of industrialization and urbanization, cities have also encountered serious challenges and difficulties such as swelling population, traffic congestion, environmental pollution, resources strain, poverty and cultural frictions. In this sense, to realize the harmonious and sustainable development of cities is a major and urgent task facing all countries around the world. The Shanghai Expo will offer an opportunity for participating countries to fully demonstrate their achievements in urban development, exchange experience, share best practices and success stories, and pool thoughts and minds together for better ways of living and working in cities. All this will prove to be a rich cultural legacy for the sustainable development of mankind.

—The Shanghai Expo will encourage innovation and enhance cooperation. It will offer a platform for countries, international organizations and enterprises to showcase innovative products and enhance exchange and cooperation. With a pool of global wisdom and international perspectives, the Expo will feature products of cutting-edge technology and ingenious creation as well as distinctive regional and cultural characteristics, inspiring human imagination. We hope it will encourage participating countries and enterprises to take full advantage of international scientific and technological resources and carry out all forms of scientific and technological cooperation on the basis of independent innovation.

—The Shanghai Expo will consolidate our confidence and promote common development. The world is undergoing profound changes and adjustments, and the trend towards a multi-polar world and economic globalization is gaining momentum. Against this background, opening-up for mutually beneficial cooperation and win-win progress has become the shared view of the international community. While we are working jointly to address a host of global challenges including the global financial crisis, climate change, energy and food security and the threat of nuclear proliferation, the success of the Shanghai Expo will have major and immediate significance. It will enhance our confidence and consensus, and facilitate our efforts to promote world peace and common development.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are still in the middle of an international financial crisis that was rarely seen in the past century. I know you are all interested in China's response to the crisis and the current economic situation in China. Let me take this opportunity to talk about it briefly.

The current financial crisis has posed the severest challenges to the world economy since the Great Depression of the 20th century. However, thanks to the joint and pragmatic efforts of the international community, the worst period is now behind us, and the world economy is now on the way to recovery. But a full recovery will still be a long and tortuous process. We must continue to act in the spirit of opening-up, cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win progress. We must take up our responsibility and work jointly to ensure comprehensive, sustained and balanced world economic development.

China, a major developing country, has adopted an active and responsible attitude in addressing the crisis. We have worked to handle matters at home properly and to fully participate and play a constructive role in international cooperation. China attaches great importance to ensuring comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable economic and social development, and takes expanding domestic demand, particularly consumer demand, as the basic foothold of our endeavor to address the international financial crisis. We have worked hard to balance development speed, structure, quality and efficiency, integrate government adjustment and control with market forces, and promote growth while improving people's livelihood. We have comprehensively implemented and steadily substantiated and improved our package plan in response to the international financial crisis. As a result, we have reversed the economic downturn in a relatively short period of time, contributing positively to world economic recovery. What has happened shows that the package plan and policy measures we have taken to tackle the international financial crisis are timely, forceful and effective. The trend toward recovery in the Chinese economy is steadily getting stronger, yet we still face a lot of difficulties and problems on the way ahead. We will further strengthen and improve macro control, and properly handle the relationship among ensuring stable and fast economic growth, adjusting economic structure, and properly managing inflation expectation. We will continue implementing the proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy, and increase policy flexibility and sustainability. We will attach greater importance to improving the quality and efficiency of economic growth, and promote stable and relatively fast development of the Chinese economy.

I wish to reiterate that China is committed to development that is peaceful, open and cooperative in nature. We are willing to join hands with the rest of the world to firmly oppose trade and investment protectionism, properly handle various types of risks and challenges, and make our own contribution to the harmonious and sustainable development of the world.

Over the last seven years since China's successful bid for the World Expo, we have mobilized resources of the whole nation, gathered wisdom from around the world, and made steady headways in the preparation work. The World Expo 2010 belongs not only to Shanghai, but to the whole China and the entire world. The Chinese Government and people have made huge efforts for this event. Countries and international organizations around the world and friends from various sectors have also contributed their great share. We will continue to do our utmost to ensure full preparation, and will further strengthen collaboration with participating countries, regions, and international organizations to make the Shanghai World Expo a successful, splendid and unforgettable event. The Seventh World Expo International Forum is the last one of its kind before the opening of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Let me take this opportunity to express, on behalf of the Chinese Government, heartfelt thanks to the comrades and friends for the hard work you have done in preparation for the World Expo.

In conclusion, I sincerely welcome friends from around the world to come to Shanghai next year and join the Chinese people to celebrate the splendor of the World Expo Shanghai and the great accomplishments of human civilization.

Thank you.   

Source: www.fmprc.gov.cn