Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's Europe tour will showcase the country's confidence in maintaining stable but relatively fast economic growth and in its efforts to overcome the global financial crisis together with the international community.
Wen's visit, which begins later in the day, will also demonstrate China's confidence in developing its comprehensive strategic partnership with European countries.
The Chinese premier's visit, which is hailed as a "tour of confidence" that comes at the beginning of 2009, will take him to Switzerland, Germany, the European Union (EU) headquarters, Spain and Britain. He will also attend an annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The forum will focus on the world's future development in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, as the economic turmoil has started to bite the emerging markets and affect real economy.
Wen is invited to speak on the first day of the meeting, showing that the rest of the world has paid more attention to China's role in development. He is to brief the participants on China's moves to tackle the global financial turmoil, and discuss with them ways to make concerted efforts to tide over the difficulties.
To deal with the worst economic crisis in decades, confidence is more important than gold or money itself. China, a nation with 1.3 billion people, bases its confidence on the economic power accumulated in the 30 years of reform and opening up, on its huge internal demand and market potential, as well as on the effectiveness of its policies to stimulate domestic demand and guarantee the priority of the people's livelihood.
Demand from China and its economic growth will serve as an impetus for world economy to recover from the downturn.
As for the world as a whole, the confidence to get out of the financial turmoil stems from cooperation. Various countries have come to realize that they should formulate a common position to surmount the crisis and coordinate fiscal and monetary actions to prevent further economic slide.
Taking a positive look at the current financial crisis, it presents the world with opportunities to develop cooperation, and Wen's visit will surely enhance the confidence of the international community to jointly address the economic woes in the spirit of cooperation and coordination.
The confidence for China to further bilateral relations with the EU comes from the extensive mutual interests and cooperation prospects. The comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU meets both sides' demand to jointly cope with the financial crisis and serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples.
China and EU have witnessed an all-round, multi-level and wide-ranging cooperation in the past 30 years. The economic and trade relations between the two sides have developed steadily. The EU continued to be China's largest trade partner, while China has been the EU's second largest trade partner. The two also enjoy a vast cooperation prospect in such fields as environmental protection, energy security and food security.
China-EU relations have developed in a sound, stable way despite some difficulties and setbacks in 2008. In order to maintain a good bilateral relationship, the two sides should respect each other's social system, culture and history, and especially the core interests. They should solve disputes through equal consultation and seek mutually beneficial cooperation for a win-win result.
Wen's visit will reinforce the strategic consensus shared by China and the EU, boost the bilateral cooperation and beef up the confidence and resolve of the two peoples to battle the current economic woes.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)