(XINHUA)

Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends:

We welcome a 2014 that is full of hope.

As the New Year begins, let us also start anew. I'm delighted to extend my New Year wishes to the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, to our compatriots in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, to overseas Chinese and to our friends all over the world!

I wish seniors, children, and every family happiness, peace and health in the New Year.

At the time to ring out the old year and ring in the new, countless workers, farmers, intellectuals and cadres still remain at their posts working hard. Many of our compatriots are on the go, working in various regions of the world for the motherland. Many members of the People's Liberation Army, armed police and public security are performing their glorious duties.

Some of them are far away from the motherland and their relatives, and some cannot be reunited with either this year.

On behalf of the motherland and its people, I'd like to offer my sincerest wishes for a peaceful new year to them.

2013 was an extraordinary year for our nation and our people. We worked together to overcome a variety of obstacles and challenges, and made new outstanding achievements.

The achievements did not come easily and they were the result of blood and sweat from all of us. I'd like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to you all.

In 2013, we made an overall plan for comprehensively deepening reform and we laid out a grand blueprint together for future development.

In 2014, we expect to take further strides on the road of reform.

We have advanced reform with the fundamental purpose of making our nation stronger and more prosperous. We are aiming to achieve a higher degree of impartiality and justice in society so that people can live a better life.

Reform is a great cause that calls for common commitments and strenuous efforts from all of us. Under the reform and opening up, we have already made countless spectacular achievements. I firmly believe that the Chinese people will achieve even greater heights than before.

More than 7 billion people inhabit the planet Earth. We are all in the same boat and must keep watch and help each other to achieve common development.

We Chinese people seek to realize the Chinese dream, a great revitalization of the Chinese nation, and also wish that the dreams of people of all countries can come true.

I sincerely hope that the people of all the countries of the world will understand and help each other in the course of realizing their dreams and building the Earth that we rely on for survival into a shared beautiful home.

Life is always full of hope. Success belongs to those who forge ahead relentlessly.

On our way forward, we will encounter various risks and challenges. We still need to complete a lot of tasks so that common people can live a happier life.

We need to be modest and prudent when working together to write a new chapter in the development of our great nation.

Thank you all.