Chinese vice premier delivers inspirational speech in Davos
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It was snowing and freezing in Davos, a Swiss Alpine ski resort situated in a valley against the backdrop of beautiful snow-covered mountains. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is holding its annual meeting in Davos.
Still, the conference hall of the WEF meeting is nice and warm, crowded by several hundreds of people listening to Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang delivering his keynote speech.
The global economy caught a chill in 2009 as the worst economic crisis in decades took its toll. China's economy, thanks to the government stimulus package, has picked up and achieved 8.7 percent growth of its GDP last year.
Political and business leaders at the forum are expecting Li to give them a glimpse of how China, hailed as the driving force of the world's economy amid the global economic downturn, would achieve long-term, fast and steady economic growth and contribute to global economic recovery.
"Last year, we acted with resolve and confronted challenges head-on, and succeeded in ensuring steady and fast economic growth," Li noted.
The Chinese vice premier, dressed in a dark navy blue suit, spoke confidently, apparently not feeling the least bit tired after spending nearly 18 hours traveling to Davos from Beijing in three days.
Li's words received great applause from a crowd that had "long expected" to hear the voice from China.
"As we draw plans for this year, we are confident that we can stay on top of the complicated situation and maintain steady and fast growth of the Chinese economy," he declared.
The vice premier said China is "well positioned to achieve long-term, fast and steady economic growth."
China's economic growth has made a contribution to the world's economic recovery. Statistics show that 22 percent of world economic growth was attributed to China's eye-catching economic development in 2008, while the figure rose to 50 percent in 2009.
At the early stage of the financial crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had said that confidence was more important than gold or money.
One year later, the vice premier brought China's confidence in dealing with the crisis and promoting domestic development in the post-crisis era to Davos and to the world.
Besides showing confidence in self-development, China also displayed belief in its growth which will support the world.
China paid a high price to preserve the value of the Renminbi and ensure the economic stability in Asia during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In 2009, China's measures against the economic crisis proved again that China and the world can not develop in isolation away from each other.
The U.S. Treasury Department said in an Oct. 15 report that China's overall policies played an important role in anchoring the global economy in 2009 and in promoting a reduction in its current account surplus.
Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said Jan. 17 that the United States itself should be held accountable for the global economic imbalances. China, which was willing to adjust its own economic structure and growth mode, made fresh contributions to rebalancing the world's economy.
Confidence does not mean blind optimism and reality should also be observed.
Although China's GDP has surpassed Germany's as the world's third largest last year and is expected to be the second over Japan this year, the per capita GDP still ranks below the top 100 in the world.
China is faced with the reality of a huge population, a weak economic foundation, unbalanced development, a relative shortage of resources and limited economic capacity.
Under such circumtances, countries, whose fates are closely connected with each other, should share more responsibility and enhance cooperation in the complicated situation, Li said.
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