ASEM press conference is held in Beijing

Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council, Brunei Sudan Hasangnaer, French President Sarkozy and EU commission President Baluozuo attended the press conference

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the press conference

After the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) concluded, a press conference was held in the Great Hall of the People on October 25. ASEM coordinator leaders Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council, French President Sarkozy, Brunei Sudan Hasangnaer and EU commission President Baluozuo attended the press conference

On the afternoon of October 25, 2008, a press conference on the 7th ASEM was held in the Great Hall of the People. ASEM coordinator leaders Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council, Brunei Sudan Hasangnaer, French President Sarkozy and EU commission President Baluozuo jointly attended the press conference and answered questions of Chinese and foreign journalists.

Wen noted that the meeting was held against the background of spreading international financial crisis and interwoven global problems of energy, food, environment, natural disaster and poverty. Under the theme of Vision and Action: Towards a Win-Win Solution, leaders at the meeting exchanged in-depth opinions frankly on such issues as the international economic and financial situation, food security, disaster relief cooperation, international and regional situations, sustainable development and strengthening dialogue among civilizations and reached wide and important consensuses. Three outcome documents were issued, i.e. the Statement of the Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting on the International Financial Situation, Sustainable Development Beijing Declaration and President’s Statement and a number of cooperation initiatives were adopted in the fields of economy, society, culture and sustainable development. With great significance and fruitful achievements, the meeting will exert a far-reaching influence on the ASEM cooperation process. China expects to join hands with other members to implement the outcome and follow-up initiatives of the meeting, consolidate and deepen the new type of Asia-Europe partnership and move into a new stage of cooperation.

A press conference on the 7th ASEM was held in the Great Hall of the People on October 25 after the conclusion of the meeting. ASEM coordinator leaders Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council, Brunei Sudan Hasangnaer, French President Sarkozy and EU commission President Baluozuo jointly attended the press conference and answered questions of Chinese and foreign journalists.

On the question concerning the international financial crisis, Wen said that it was of realistic meaning to make the discussion on how to cope with the international financial crisis one of the topics of the meeting. He summarized the answer to the crisis as confidence, cooperation and responsibility.

I. Confidence. All the countries, especially the developed ones, should take decisive measures to stabilize the financial market and help people rebuild confidence. We are glad to see that many countries have taken measures and achieved initial results. But it seems far from being enough and continuous efforts need to be made. Stability of the financial market is critical to the stability of the entire economy. The first important message of the meeting is to build confidence and he believes confidence is the source of power to overcome difficulties.

II. Cooperation. We need to strengthen cooperation among countries and make joint efforts to cope with the unprecedented serious financial crisis. Only by cooperation can we build capacity to overcome the difficulties. National leaders should first of all pay high attention to the issue. Both the 7th ASEM and the upcoming international financial summit in Washington are proof of the cooperative attitude of national leaders. Of course, in the process of cooperation, we should focus on two things. First is to clarify the responsibility of the government, the enterprises and the regulators, and second is to carefully learn from the financial crisis.

I believe we should draw lessons from the three aspects:

i. To properly handle the relations between financial innovation and financial supervision. We need financial innovation to serve the economy, but we should pay greater attention to strengthening financial supervision to ensure the financial security.

ii. To properly handle the relations between real economy and virtual economy. We need the healthy development of the virtual economy to promote the growth of the real economy. Therefore, the two must be coordinated and the development of the real economy should not be influenced by the problems of the virtual economy.

iii. To properly handle the relations between saving and spending. We should keep a normal, balanced and coordinated relationship between saving and spending. Only in this way can we maintain economic stability.

III. Responsibility. With common consensus, it is critical for us to fulfill our responsibility. First, our biggest responsibility is to stabilize the financial order as soon as possible so as to curb the financial risks. Second, we should try our best to prevent the influence of the financial crisis on the real economy. It requires governments around the world to shoulder their responsibilities firmly and bravely.

Wen pointed out that the Chinese financial market has been opened steadily over the years. The financial crisis has influenced China, but such influence is not so serious due to the limited contacts between the Chinese financial sector and the outside world. We should recognize that the financial crisis will surely influence the Chinese economy by slowing down the world economy. During the first three quarters, China’s GDP growth rate was 9.9%. It is the first time for the Chinese GDP growth rate to drop to one digit over the past 6 years. Of course, it is driven to some extent by our proactive control efforts, but we should not deny that changes of the world economy, especially the decreasing external demand have impacted the Chinese economy. We have taken countermeasures early. In June this year, we readjusted the macroeconomic policy to make it flexible and prudent and took targeted measures in response to emerging economic problems. We give top priority to maintaining the stable economic growth and at the same time pay attention to curbing inflation and keeping the balance of international payment. We have adopted a series of steps of which the most important one is to expand domestic demand, mainly consumption demand. Some measures have shown results and some need more time to do so. China has large rural areas and vast western regions. Big development gap exists between the rural and urban areas and among different localities. There remain great potential of domestic demand and market space to be tapped. So long as we have correct policy, we will be able to maintain the stable and relatively fast economic growth, of which we are fully confident.

He noted that to maintain stable and relatively fast economic growth will be the greatest contribution of China to the world as the international financial crisis is deteriorating. We will actively attend the international financial summit to be held in Washington and discuss with other countries the solutions to the crisis in a cooperative and pragmatic attitude. We wish the Washington summit a big success.

On the question about how to rebuild the confidence of Chinese and foreign consumers of Chinese food, Wen said that not only the enterprise but also the government should be held responsible for the “problem milk powder”. The regulators should take the major responsibility. We will adopt three steps to address the food safety issue:

First, we will carefully handle the milk powder incident. Not only the people who are directly responsible for the contamination but also the leaders involved should be held liable. Criminal sanctions will be imposed on those whose act constitutes a crime.

Second, food has a complete industrial chain from farm to table. We must effectively monitor each link from production to transport, processing, formula and manufacturing. We should clearly define the responsibility of each link, especially the legal responsibility so as to protect the health and safety of the public.

Third, we should improve the legal framework of food safety. The National People’s Congress is deliberating the Food Safety Law. We will take the opportunity of enacting that law to strengthen food safety management comprehensively.

He stressed that the Chinese government attaches great importance to food safety since it involves the interest of not only the Chinese people but also people of the other countries. We are determined to make an important step forward on the issue of food safety and win the trust of the Chinese people and people of the rest of the world with tangible actions and product quality.

Sarkozy, Hasangnaer and Baluozuo made positive remarks on the important outcome of ASEM this year and expressed admiration and gratitude to the Chinese organizer for its careful preparations and contributions to the success of the meeting.