Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed in Ottawa Thursday that economic development and prosperity will continue to be the primary target of the Chinese government.  

At a luncheon held by the Canada-China Business Council, Wen said that China is a developing country with a large population and a vulnerable economic foundation. "We are faced with many difficulties and problems on our road to progress," he said.

However, China is determined to "build a well-off society in an all-round way during the first two decades of this century," he said.

By 2020, China's GDP, calculated at current exchange rate, will have quadrupled that of 2000, reaching US$4 trillion.

"By then, China will have a more developed economy, a more complete democracy, a more advanced science and education system, a more thriving culture, a more harmonious society and a more affluent life for its people."

Wen stressed that the Chinese government will "continue to place the interests of our people above anything else," and manage to balance "the development in both urban and rural areas, the development among different regions, and the development between the economic and social undertakings."

The premier said China will deepen its ongoing economic reform and improve its system of a socialist market economy by way of giving "greater play to the basic role of the market in the allocation of resources, lending powerful impetus to the rapid and sound development of the national economy."

He added that China will make efforts in implementing the open-up policy by "building a more open economic system."

As to the implementation of trade rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Wen said that China will fully honor its WTO commitments.

Two years after China entered the WTO in November 2001, China has revised or amended nearly 3,000 laws and sets of administrative regulations, increased transparency of policies, laws and administrative regulations, stepped up legislation and law enforcement for intellectual property rights protection, and made its service market more accessible, said the Chinese premier.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2003)