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Asian Countries Facing With Opportunities, Challenges: Hu Jintao
Vice-President Hu Jintao Monday said the Asian countries are faced with both rare opportunities and severe challenges in today's world where profound changes are undergoing.
Hu, who arrived in Indonesia on Saturday for a four-day official visit, made the statement when addressing the Indonesian Council on World Affairs.
He viewed that the achievements that Asia has scored in the last 100 years are enormous and magnificent, but the course it has traversed was full of twists and turns.
"The seeds of separatism and antagonism sown in Asian countries by big powers during their colonial rule or rivaling for spheres of influence have not been eliminated even today. The icy situation in Asia caused by the East-West Cold War has not thawed completely. Economic development in Asia is not balanced, and there are still people being plagued by poverty in some Asian countries. And in the late 1990s, some Asian countries were severely hit by the financial crisis, and have since met grave difficulties in their economic development. We should pay great attention to these problems and lessons, and address them seriously," he said.
Hu said reviewing and reflecting upon the history are for the purpose of opening up a better future. The world today is undergoing profound changes, as evidenced by an irreversible trend toward political multipolarity, a fast economic globalization and a rapid advancement of science and technology.
In facing with this situation, he said, how to effectively maintain regional peace, promote economic growth and bring about lasting stability and prosperity in the new century is a major historical subject before all the peoples in Asia.
To this end, he stressed, it is imperative that the Asian nations make concerted efforts on the following fronts:
"Firstly, we should go all out to develop our economies and improve the living standards of our people. Secondly, We should strengthen ourselves through solidarity and further enhance regional economic cooperation. Thirdly, we should foster a new security concept and effectively safeguard the peaceful and stable environment of Asia. Fourthly we should vigorously promote the establishment of a new equitable and rational international political and economic order in response to the demand of the trend of our times," Hu said.
Development bears on state interests, the people's livelihood and the long-term stability of a country, and it bears on peace and security of the world as well, Hu said.
In economic field, Hu said that countries in Asia should seize the opportunity and vigorously readjust their development strategies to accelerate their industrialization, modernization and marketization.
"It is particularly imperative that Asian countries increase the input in science, technology, and education to foster talents, attach importance to hi-tech industries, speed up industrial upgrading and promote a sustained and rapid growth of Asian economies in the new century so that our people may gradually live a prosperous life," he said.
Noting the inter-state economic linkages are becoming closer and closer, Hu said that the only way to better Asia's overall development and competitiveness lies in the mutual opening-up, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development of all in Asia.
He said: "In this connection, it is important that Asian countries make use of regional economic cooperation and other forms of cooperation and draw upon each other's advantages to make the allocation of resources more effective. We should also expand our trade and investment, enhance our financial cooperation to acquire a stronger capability to ward off financial risk, and promote jointly the economic development of Asia."
In connection with the regional stability issue in the region, Hu reminded that the Cold War mentality still exists and hegemonism and power politics have taken some new forms, posing a threat to peace and development of mankind.
"A new security concept that embraces the principles of equality, dialogue, trust and cooperation, and a new security order should be established to ensure genuine mutual respect, mutual cooperation, consensus through consultation and peaceful settlement of disputes, rather than bullying, confrontation and imposition of one's own will upon others. Only in that way can countries coexist in amity and secure their development," Hu said.
Noting that political multipolarization and economic globalization has became a trend of today's world, Hu said the trend will have a profound impact on the political, economic and cultural lives of each and every country.
It should be noted that economic globalization apparently features inequality since it was first initiated and is dominated by the developed countries without any fundamental change to the old economic order.
Hu said although the developing countries may also have certain opportunities in economic globalization, they are, on the whole, still in a disadvantaged position due to their backward economy and lower level of science, technology and education. This makes the establishment of a new fair and reasonable international order all the more urgent.
"A new international political and economic order should be based itself upon the universally recognized norms governing international relations, meet the need of the development and progress of our times and reflect the spirit of peace and equality.
It should ensure that all countries, regardless of their size, wealth and strength, are all equal members of the international community. All countries have the right to choose the social system, road of development and the values that fit in with their national conditions, and they all have the right to fully participate in the making of relevant rules. World affairs should be handled by all countries in the world through consultation," Hu said.
Hu stressed that China is ready to work together with all other countries in Asia to explore new ideas on Asia's future development and make new headway in economic and social development.
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