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Vancouver, Canada
25 November 1997
The Rt. Hon. Prune Minister Chretien,
Fellow Colleagues,
It is a great pleasure for me to come
to this picturesque land of maples. First of all, please allow
me to extend my heartfelt thanks to you, Mr. Prime Minister
and the Canadian Government for your considerate arrangements.
As mankind is approaching the 2lst century,
it is necessary for us to develop a concept as well as a modality
for cooperation that are in conformity with the trend of the
times by summarizing the past experience and looking into
the future.
APEC is the most influential economic
forum in our region and one of the most dynamic organizations
for economic cooperation in the world. It has its own basic
features in its approach, that is, giving full consideration
to the diversity of its members and acknowledging their divergence
in the level and stage of development as well as the consequent
differing interests and needs; laying emphasis on flexibility,
step-by-step progress and openness, adhering to such principles
as equality and mutual benefit, consensus, seeking common
ground while putting aside differences as well as voluntarism;
and, combining individual with collective actions.
Practice has proved all the more clearly
that the APEC Approach, which responds to the reality in the
region, is conducive to achieving a balance of rights, interests
and needs of various members. It will also help its member
economies to give full play to their capability for common
development. Adherence to this approach affords an important
guarantee for strengthened cooperation among APEC members.
The sole mission of APEC is to promote
economic cooperation. It should refrain from extending the
scope of its discussion to social, political, security and
other non-economic fields. It is necessary to concentrate
our efforts on advancing economic cooperation in a spirit
of doing certain things and refraining from doing other things.
Trade and investment liberalization is
a relative and conditional concept for any APEC member economy.
Diversity among APEC members and their actual circumstances
should be fully taken into consideration and the principles
of voluntarism, mutual benefit, and consensus be observed.
In identifying sectors for early voluntary liberalization
( EVSL), members should be allowed to maintain the freedom
of choice in terms of participation. Meanwhile, the differentiation
between the two timetables should be acknowledged, and both
the interests of a member itself as well as those of other
members should be considered so as to facilitate common development.
Developed members should be encouraged to use their economic
and technological advantages to help developing members on
the basis of equality, mutual benefit and complementarity.
By no means should the interests of the developing economies
be compromised. Only in this way will more opportunities for
cooperation be created for both developed and developing members.
Economic and technological cooperation
and trade and investment liberalization are closely linked
and should support each other. The rapid and dynamic advance
of science and technology today has become the decisive factor
behind the development of productive forces and exerted profound
impacts on world economy and social life. Strengthened scientific
and technological exchanges as well as technological cooperation
and transfer will not only help augment the economic and technological
strength of developing members, but also enhance the sustainability
of economic development of the developed members. This will
not only narrow the gap of development among its members but
also greatly facilitate the process of trade and investment
liberalization. To this end, I would like to put forward the
following four points.
I. Fully open the market for technology
trade so as to facilitate the technological cooperation and
transfer among APEC members, remove man-made barriers and
abolish discriminative policies and practices.
II. Adopt necessary measures to encourage
and speed up the transfer of hi-technologies and other latest
technologies to all members and developing members in particular
with a view to promoting economic and technological progress
of developing members.
III. All members should pay due attention
to the protection of intellectual property rights and work
to rationalize the IRP regime. Protective period of technical
patents should be appropriate and terms of their transfer
fair.
IV. I would like to propose that APEC
adopts an Agenda for Science and Technology Industry Cooperation
into the 21 Century. The Agenda should include objectives
and principles on the one hand and concrete measures and steps
on the other, combining market orientation with governmental
regulation and control, R&D with the application of the
results, and comprehensiveness with specificity in defining
priority cooperative projects, with a view to activating the
process of Ecotech in real earnest.
The recent financial instability in Southeast
Asia has affected many regions in the world and aroused wide-spread
concern from the international community. From the recent
and previous financial instability around the world, we may
draw some useful lessons.
Normal and safe operation of the financial
system is crucial to the overall economic stability and development.
To maintain a normal financial order and ward off financial
risks, we should not only formulate correct economic development
strategies and preserve a rational economic structure, but
also improve the financial system through strengthened financial
supervision and regulation. Meanwhile, we should maintain
an appropriate structure and size for external debt and gradually
open the capital market and financial services market in light
of our specific conditions.
It is beneficial to all countries to enhance
regional and international financial cooperation, maintain
normal international financial order, jointly ward off the
impact of excessive speculation of hot money in the world
and create a favourable financial environment. We adopt a
positive attitude towards strengthening financial cooperation
in Asia and is ready to participate in discussions on relevant
mechanism for cooperation.
Southeast Asia has suffered temporary
economic difficulties due to the recent instability in financial
market. Nevertheless, we are confidential that this region
will further demonstrate its vitality for development and
hold out a promising prospect if useful lessons can be drawn
and appropriate adjustment made.
Since 1993, China has lowered its tariff
on a basis of several times, a drop of about 60% in five year.
Beginning from 1 October this year, China's average tariff
level is reduced to 17%. The Chinese Government has decided
to lower its average tariff on industrial products to10% by
2005. In addition, China has decided to accede to the Information
Technology Agreement and started negotiations on relevant
issues. We believe that such practical moves on our part will
promote the development of economic and technological cooperation
as well as trade and investment liberalization in the Asia-Pacific
region.
In conclusion, I would like to warmly
welcome the convocation of the 9th Informal APEC Economic
Leaders' Meeting in Shanghai, China in 2001. We will make
full preparations for this meeting.
Thank you.
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