Your Excellencies,

President Fessas,

Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Good evening! It is a great pleasure for me to join all of you at the reception to celebrate the Official Inauguration of the Greece-China Business Council. Let me begin by extending our sincere congratulations to the Board of Directors and the Founding Members for their successful initiative.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Both China and Greece are ancient civilizations with a history dating back over thousands of years. Our two peoples have both made major contributions to human progress with hard work and ingenuity. Not only do we share the originality, greatness and profound richness of our ancient cultures, but also we want to add vigor, resilience and pioneering spirit to our cooperation in modern times. The establishment of the Council gives full expression to the widespread interest here in the prospects of development in China and the impact of this development on bilateral relations. It also demonstrates that continued mutually beneficial cooperation will usher in a better future and generate more opportunities for China and Greece. To the efforts of the Council in this regard, we give our full support.

 

During my first six months in Greece, I have been deeply touched by the warm and friendly feelings that Greek people hold toward China. While learning about my host country and making Greek friends, I have also been briefing them about the development in China. I believe that the more we know about each other, the better we will be able to cultivate our relations. With the help of some statistic figures, I would like to illustrate the profound transformation China has undergone since 1978 when the reform and opening-up was implemented.

 

In a short span of 26 years from 1978 to 2004, China's GDP increased from 147 billion US dollars to 1.65 trillion US dollars with an average annual growth rate of 9.4 percent. Its foreign trade rose from 20.6 billion US dollars to 1.15 trillion US dollars, averaging an annual growth rate of over 16 percent. China's foreign exchange reserve increased from 167 million US dollars to 609 billion US dollars. The number of rural poor has dwindled from some 250 million to 26 million. The overall national strength of China has increased remarkably and the quality of Chinese people's life improved steadily.

 

We think the first 20 years of this century is an important strategic period for China's development. We have identified the goal for this period. That is to firmly seize the strategic opportunities to build a moderately prosperous society of a higher standard in an all-round way for the benefits of our people. By 2020, we will quadruple China's GDP of 2000 to approximately 4 trillion US dollars with a per capita level of some 3000 US dollars. We are deeply aware that China, for a long period of time to come, will remain a developing country. The population figure of 1.3 billion alone will make the fulfillment of the above goal a formidable challenge, and we must be prepared for a long and uphill journey ahead.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

As always, a developing, stable and prosperous China will create tremendous cooperation opportunities with win-win results for other countries. By the end of 2004, China had attracted a total of 562 billion US dollars in FDI, approved the establishment in China of more than 500,000 foreign-funded enterprises and created a huge import market of some 560 billion US dollars annually. As China becomes more developed, its cooperation with other countries is bound to increase in scale. China will keep opening up its market, improve on legislations and regulations for encouraging and protecting foreign investors, enhance protection of intellectual property rights, and work still harder to help foreign investors and create an even better environment for trade and economic cooperation between China and the rest of the world.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Under these circumstances, what should we do to promote OUR bilateral relations? The inauguration of the Greece-China Business Council has given a timely answer. The Council is the brainchild of farsighted Greek corporate leaders and its birth is blessed tonight with the presence of the equally far-sighted Greek political and business leaders. All of you here have been vigorously involved in pushing economic and trade cooperation with China and made significant contribution to bilateral relations. Facts have proved that such cooperation serves our mutual interests.

 

Bilateral economic and trade relations between China and Greece have been developing very fast in the past few years. Our bilateral trade volume of 2004 reached 1.5 billion US dollars, with an increase of 23.4% over 2003. We have excellent cooperation in shipping sector. A large portion of Chinese cargos are transported by Greek ships. Last year, we imported 110 million tons of crude oil, 80% of which was carried by foreign tankers and 80% of the 80% by Greek tankers. Every year, you send over 100 ships to China for repairing. About 10% of your fleet were built by China. These are just small examples illustrating our good cooperation. Olympic Games and tourism have become new areas of cooperation. Meanwhile, several renowned Chinese companies have been operating in Greece actively. The representatives of COSCO, CCS, China Shipping, ZTE, Huawei and Air China have also been invited to the reception tonight. I am sure that you have a lot to communicate later on. If you come up with good ideas about how to promote bilateral cooperation, I am sure President Fessas is ready to lend an ear.

 

Although our bilateral economic and trade cooperation is not in a very large scale for the time being, there is huge potential for future development. I firmly believe that there are a lot we can do together. Taken into consideration the great prospects, trivial problems that we encounter should be responsibly handled and properly solved. Greece and China are the first two host countries of the Olympic Games in the 21^st century. There are huge opportunities in store for real business in this golden period of cooperation. The Greece-China Business Council is established at the right time for the right purpose. I believe that, through our joint efforts, the comprehensive cooperation between China and Greece will step up to a new high.

 

May I conclude my remarks by wishing the Greece-China Business Council a complete success.

 

Thank you!