Chinese President Hu Jintao put forward three proposals to strengthen cooperation among developing countries at the leaders' meeting of the six developing countries on Sunday.

 

Hu said that facing rare opportunities of development, no country, especially those in the developing world, is immune from grave challenges, such as widening gap between the North and the South, more uneven economic development, rising trade protectionism and increasing oil prices.

 

Therefore, Hu suggested fulfilling commitments and advancing international development cooperation as the first point.

 

As scheduled completion of the Millennium Development Goals is drawing close, "the international community, especially the developed countries, should take more active and effective measures to deliver their promise on the provision of funds, debt reduction and cancellation, market access and, in particular, the promise to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on Official Development Assistance," he elaborated.

 

"New ways should be explored to raise adequate finance for international development cooperation," the president said, adding that "necessary reforms are also needed to make the international economic system and rules more fair and equitable and provide more room and opportunities for developing countries to grow."

 

Secondly, "enhance cooperation and work for the successful conclusion of the Doha Round negotiations," Hu said.

 

With regard to this aspect, "the top priority is to solve the issue of trade in agricultural products," he said, noting parties concerned should cut their domestic support for agricultural products, increase market access for agricultural products and remove all forms of export subsidy.

 

"The second issue is to define the special and differentiated treatment for developing members, which will enable them to participate in and truly benefit from the multilateral trading system," Hu said.

 

"The third is to strive for simultaneous progress in talks on non-agricultural products, market access, rules and regulations and other issues, and to properly address the concerns of new members," he added.

 

"Thirdly, be pioneering and innovative and deepen South-South cooperation," Hu said, noting that enhancing South-South cooperation is in the common interests of developing countries.

 

Hu advised that countries should respect and learn from each other, be open-minded, embrace diversity of the world and multiple modes of development and promote progress of human civilization by seeking common ground and drawing on each other's merits.

 

Invited by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Hu arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday to attend the outreach session of the Group of Eight (G8) summit, which is scheduled for Monday.

 

On the sidelines of the summit, Hu will have a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Russia and India besides the group meeting with leaders from India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and the Republic of Congo.

 

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2006)