On Sept. 29, 2013, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a briefing for Chinese and foreign media. Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, and Deputy China International Trade Representative of the Ministry of Commerce Yu Jianhua respectively introduced President Xi Jinping's upcoming visits to Indonesia, Malaysia and attendance of the 21st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and took questions.
I. On State Visits to Indonesia and Malaysia
Indonesia and Malaysia are friendly neighbours of China as well as important members of ASEAN. The Chinese government attaches great importance to developing friendly cooperative relations with the two countries. This is President Xi Jinping's first visit to Southeast Asia and its main purpose is to further consolidate traditionally good-neighbourly friendly relations, to fully promote mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields, to work together to plan for the blueprint for the development of bilateral relations, and to exchange views on regional cooperation and international issues of mutual interest. It is believed that the visit will further uplift the level of China-Indonesia, China-Malaysia relations, boost the development of bilateral practical cooperation and push for the further deepening of China-ASEAN relations so as to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity of the region.
China's relations with the two countries enjoy a sound growth momentum with mutual respect and close cooperation. Common development has been promoted and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes have been yielded. China-Indonesia strategic partnership has enjoyed rapid development in recent years and cooperation in all fields has been advanced unceasingly. Bilateral trade volume last year reached 66.2 billion US dollars, four times that of 2005. China is now the second largest trade partner of Indonesia. Indonesia has been among China's top ten project contracting markets in the world as well as China's largest project contracting market in Southeast Asia for three consecutive years. The cooperation between the two countries in the fields of scien-tech, education, culture, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, defence, maritime affairs and aerospace has yielded positive outcomes. As big developing countries, China and Indonesia have maintained close communication and coordination in international and regional affairs and have worked together in safeguarding the interests of the majority of developing nations. China-Malaysia relations enjoy a sound growth momentum, with positive progress of practical cooperation in all fields. Bilateral trade volume amounted to 94.8 billion US dollars last year. China has been Malaysia's largest trade partner for four consecutive years, while Malaysia has been China's largest trade partner among ASEAN countries for five consecutive years. Large projects jointly built by the two countries such as the Qinzhou industrial park and the Kuantan industrial park have made positive progress and have set a precedent for China and friendly nations to set up industrial parks in each other's country. Both sides enjoy frequent people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Last year the number of personnel exchanges reached 2.6 million person times and China is one of Malaysia's major sources of overseas tourists.
During the visit to Indonesia, President Xi Jinping will hold talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and attend with him a business luncheon. He will meet with Vice President Boediono and parliament leaders. President Xi Jinping will also be invited to deliver a speech at the House of Representatives of Indonesia and elaborate on China's vision on further promoting the development of China-Indonesia relations and of China-ASEAN relations as well as on China's idea of peaceful development. During the visit to Malaysia, President Xi Jinping will meet with Supreme Head of State Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah. He will hold talks with Prime Minister Najib Razak and attend with him an economic summit. During President Xi Jinping's visit to the two countries, both sides will sign a series of cooperation documents covering the fields of economy, trade, aerospace, scien-tech and fishery. Indonesia and Malaysia are both important members of ASEAN. During the visit, President Xi Jinping will exchange in-depth views with the leaders of the two countries on pushing for the further development of China-ASEAN relations as well as other major regional and international issues.
II. On Attendance during the 21st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting
The theme of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting this year is "Resilient Asia-Pacific, Engine of Global Growth", and the major topics include attaining the Bogor goals, achieving sustainable growth with equity and Asia-Pacific connectivity. In addition, all parties are paying close attention to the regional economic integration, multilateral trading system, economic structural reform and other issues. All of them are closely connected with the problems facing the economic entity of the Asia-Pacific region, and the long-term development of the region.
China wishes that the meeting this year shall achieve positive results. We hope that the meeting will follow the principal line of promoting Asia-Pacific region to play a leading role in the global economic recovery and accomplish three objectives. First, advocating to develop an open economy and to promote APEC to play a greater leading role. Second, sending a positive signal that the Asia-Pacific region has a bright development prospect based on the economic situation in the Asia-Pacific region, promoting win-win outcomes, and boosting the confidence of the international community in the Asia-Pacific development. Third, forming more positive and pragmatic results in wide-ranging areas, such as supporting multilateral trading system, coordinating regional free trade arrangements, and promoting Asia-Pacific connectivity and infrastructure construction. The Chinese side looks forward to a successful and smooth APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and hopes it will become a positive, pragmatic and cooperative meeting. China will play a constructive role to contribute to this end.
It is the first time for President Xi Jinping to attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and the meeting has received high attention of all parties. President Xi Jinping will attend the two sessions of the Economic Leaders' Meeting where he will make important remarks, attend the APEC CEO Summit and deliver a keynote speech, participate in the dialogue between APEC leaders and representatives of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and meet leaders or representatives of other economies. At the Economic Leaders' Meeting, President Xi Jinping will focus on topics of different sessions to expound on China's views on global economic situation, the role of APEC in strengthening multilateral trading system, the connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region, sustainable growth with equity and other issues, and introduce China's considerations on hosting the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting next year. At the APEC CEO Summit, he will deliver a keynote speech in which he will elaborate on China's current economic situation and the reform measures going forward, and his opinion on the future development direction of the APEC region. At the dialogue between APEC leaders and representatives of the ABAC, he will exchange views with the business community on issues of common concern including the Asia-Pacific economic situation. We believe that President Xi Jinping's attendance will contribute significantly to promoting the Asia-Pacific economic development, enhancing the role of APEC, pushing forward regional cooperation process and strengthening China's friendly cooperative relations with relevant countries.
The Economic Leaders' Meeting is held under the backdrop where world is faced with comple economic situation, trade and investment protectionism is resurfacing, the Doha Round negotiations are at a critical moment and the economic integration of the Asia-Pacific region is gathering momentum. China will continue to firmly support the multilateral trading regime, advance the regional economic integration and strongly oppose protectionism of various forms to promote the economic recovery and growth of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
A just, transparent and non-discriminatory multilateral trading mechanism serves the common interests of APEC members as it provides a stable institutional environment for their economic recovery and growth. There are nine weeks before the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in December, and the Doha Round "Early Harvest" negotiations have entered the final stage. The negotiations, succeed or fail, will have a direct bearing on the world economy and the whole multilateral trading regime. The APEC economies should send more positive and clearer political messages at the Leaders' Meeting to advance the negotiation process at the critical moment. China will unswervingly uphold the multilateral trading mechanism as the main channel, and promote more open, more just and more balanced development of the multilateral trading mechanism.
The trade and investment liberalization and facilitation decided by the Bogor Goals still call for the efforts of the economies which are far away from the fulfillment of the goals. China calls on all parties to focus on the Bogor Goals by opening the market of the region speeding up reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers. We need to not only eliminate the barriers in the traditional trade areas, but also avoid releasing new restrictive measures.
Nowadays, the free trade areas (FTAs) are developing rapidly, and the regional economic integration has shown a multi-channel and parallel development. The Chinese side maintains an open attitude towards various regional cooperation mechanisms and negotiation combinations and calls on all parties to adhere to open, accommodative and transparent principles when building the FTAs, and to be flexible, especially when dealing with economies with different development levels, so various economies can have more options in integration. APEC should act as an "incubator", actively build platforms for exchanges, and promote a situation where the FTAs learn from, integrate with and promote each other, creating favorable conditions for the Asia-Pacific FTA.
