|
Subic, the Philippines
25 November 1996
Your Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos,
Excellencies,
I am delighted to be here at scenic Subic
for the APEC leadership gathering which I hope will give fresh
impetus to economic cooperation in our region. I would like
to express my heartfelt thanks to President Ramos for his
kind invitation and to the Philippine Government for its thoughtful
arrangements for our meeting.
The Asia-Pacific region has steadily raised
its economic strength and scientific and technical level in
recent years. Some developing members of the region, in particular,
have maintained a momentum of rapid growth. However, the gains
are rather uneven among member economies. Particularly, there
is still a big gap in terms of economic level between the
developing members and the developed ones.
Economic ties between countries are becoming
closer and more extensive nowadays, which presents fresh opportunities
as well as new challenges for Asia- Pacific economic development.
In order to maintain a sustained economic growth, countries
and areas in the Asia-Pacific region need to continue tapping
their own potentials while reinforcing economic cooperation
at the regional level.
Since the Bogor Meeting, APEC trade and
investment liberalization has got off on track gradually and
made some positive headway. One important contribution of
the Osaka Meeting was to begin placing equal importance on
economic and technical cooperation and trade and investment
liberalization. Nevertheless, we are yet to work out a consensus
on how to push forward economic and technical cooperation.
One opinion only emphasizes the importance
of trade and investment liberalization, while allocating a
subordinate role to economic and technical cooperation. I
am afraid this opinion fails to consider all sides of the
matter. In fact, without a fruitful economic and technical
cooperation, trade and investment liberalization can not make
much headway. In so far as developed members are concerned,
market is essential to their continued growth as they must
seek new outlets for their capital and merchandise. Such a
market will be very limited if economies of the developing
members remain stagnant. Economic and technical cooperation
will facilitate the growth of developing members, thereby
turning potential markets into real ones and widening the
growth horizon of the developed members.
I would like to make a few observations
in this regard.
---- The basic objective of economic and
technical cooperation is to turn diversity into complementarity
in the economic development of all members, so as to achieve
common prosperity. Hence, we should step up cooperation in
the technical field, facilitate the diffusion of technology
and know-how, and promote the development and effective use
of human and natural resources.
----In both principles and practices,
APEC economic and technical cooperation is quite different
from development aid in the traditional sense. This cooperation
is reciprocal, based on equality, mutual benefit and complementarity.
It calls for the rich helping the poor, but also requires
all members to make their respective contribution within their
means. It stresses the role of government, but also encourages
involvement of business sector. It allows appropriate policy
guidance, but also applies market mechanism. It opens not
only to members but also to non-members. With such an approach,
all participants will be able to do their very best.
---- In order to ensure an effective economic
and technical cooperation, it is necessary to set a focus,
namely, to define certain priority areas. There is a high
degree of complementarity among APEC members in the realms
of human resources development, science and technology, environmental
protection and infrastructure. We should adopt effective measures
to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in this regard.
Since its establishment, APEC has accumulated
some experience in the course of practice and gradually come
up with unique way of cooperation. This has come to be known
as the "APEC approach''. It has such features as recognition
of diversity; emphasis on flexibility, gradual progress and
openness; adherence to mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit,
consensus and voluntarity; and combination of individual and
collective actions. Guided by the collectively-defined common
objectives, APEC members are free to make their respective
efforts in light of their own circumstances. These principles
and practices take into account of differing development levels
and resilience of partners in cooperation, and thus strike
an optimum balance among their diverse interests and demands.
This approach should also be adhered to
in APEC trade and liberalization. The issue of information
technology addressed during this meeting is indeed very important.
However, due to the differences among APEC members in terms
of levels of economic development, it will be very difficult
for them to liberalize the sector within the framework of
one timetable. Adequate flexibility should be exercised in
the area of product coverage. Moreover, promoting the flow
of information technology is not merely a question of reducing
tariffs, it also requires efforts to remove impediments to
technology transfer.
APEC practice has shown that this approach
is viable and effective. Since the Osaka Meeting, all members
have submitted their IAPs on trade and investment liberalization.
In the context of their respective development levels, many
members, including China, have made tremendous efforts to
promote regional cooperation and trade and investment liberalization.
I have the pleasure to inform you that China has reduced its
average import tariff rate from 35.9% to 23% in the current
year, and will bring it further down to around 15% by year
2000. China will continue to support the ''APEC approach'',
actively participate in Asia-Pacific economic cooperation
and make its due contribution to the realization of our common
objectives.
There is no precedence which APEC can
follow since ours is a new type of economic cooperation. We
should go forward, constantly enriching and supplementing
our experience of cooperation, so as to blaze a new trail
towards even closer Asia-Pacific economic cooperation. May
I conclude my speech by quoting Chinese thinker and writer
Lu Xun who said: ''For actually the earth had no road to begin
with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.''
Thank you.
|
