Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visits to Malaysia and Singapore and his attendance at the 17th Economic Leaders Meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Nov. 10-15 was fruitful and achieved great success, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Sunday.

Yang, who was accompanying the Chinese president during the tour, told Chinese reporters that Hu's visit was made against the backdrop of a steady global economy that is improving for the better and of the profoundly changing regional situation.

It was an important diplomatic move aimed at deepening good-neighborly relations, promoting cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and joining efforts with the countries in the region to tackle crises and meet challenges.

During the six days, President Hu attended more than 30 multilateral or bilateral events, including meetings with leaders of Malaysia and Singapore, having extensive contacts with people from various walks of life and delivering important speeches at the APEC meeting.

Local and international media gave prominent, objective and positive coverage to Hu's visits. The Chinese president became a focus of world attention again, particularly at the APEC meetings.

Throughout the Chinese president's Asian tour, there was always a warm and friendly atmosphere and the visit is a complete success, the foreign minister said.

PROMOTION OF CHINA-MALAYSIA STRATEGIC COOPERATION TO A NEW LEVEL

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia. In recent years, the two countries have witnessed a momentum of sound development of bilateral ties, marked by frequent exchanges of high-level visits and close people-to-people exchanges and fruitful cooperation in various fields. In view of the international financial crisis, China and Malaysia expressed their readiness to deepen cooperation as bilateral relations face new opportunities for development.

During his stay in Malaysia, President Hu met with Malaysian Supreme Head of State Mizan Zainal Abidin and had an in-depth exchange of views with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation. Both sides pledged efforts to advance their strategic cooperative ties to a higher level.

The Chinese president proposed that, to further push forward the development of China-Malaysia relations, both sides do good work in implementing the Joint Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation, strive to expand the scope of cooperation, seek new forms of cooperation and nurture new sectors with development potentials.

The Malaysian leaders gave positive responses to Hu's proposal and fully agreed with Hu's important views on further development of bilateral ties. The Malaysian side is willing to work with China; to explore new areas of cooperation, in efforts to cement bilateral strategic cooperation.

The two countries agreed to jointly promote the development of China-ASEAN relations, advance the the process of cooperation in East Asia, strengthen communication and coordination within the multilateral frameworks including APEC and make new contributions to development in the Asia-Pacific region.

PROMOTION OF CHINA-SINGAPORE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL COOPERATION TOA NEW LEVEL

During his visit to Singapore, the Chinese president met with Singaporean President S. R. Nathan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Gok Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, and exchanged profound views with them on China-Singapore relations, on international and regional issues of common concern, and reached consensus on a number of issues.

President Hu put forward a six-point proposal for deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. The proposal includes maintaining high-level exchanges, bringing into full play the bilateral cooperation mechanism, bettering the intergovernmental flagship projects of the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Ecological Area, and strengthening defensive security and multilateral cooperation.

The Chinese president announced in Singapore that to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore next year, China will provide Singapore with a pair of giant pandas for cooperative research. The announcement was warmly applauded by the Singaporean people who take this move as a symbol of the China-Singapore friendship.

Singaporean leaders spoke highly of the progress achieved in various cooperation fields. The two sides believed that cooperation was well conducted in such important chosen fields as high-tech, in facilitating Chinese enterprises to "go global", and in the training of human resources. The Suzhou Industrial Park has achieved outstanding progress in the past 15 years.

PROPOSAL FOR TACKLING FINANCIAL CRISIS

During his visits to Malaysia and Singapore, Hu gave a comprehensive and detailed account of the policies and measures China has adopted to fight the international financial crisis and the successes achieved in this regard.

The leaders of Malaysia and Singapore spoke highly of the positive and constructive role China has played in the fight against the financial crisis in Asia and the whole world and they were convinced that China would continue to play an important role in the "post-crisis" era.

A stable, dynamic and prosperous Chinese economy would contribute greatly to economic recovery in Asia and the world at large, they agreed.

On the issue of promoting sustained growth, Hu said the profound impact of the financial crisis is still evident and the world economic upturn is not yet firmly established. A comprehensive world economic recovery still faces many uncertainties and destabilizing factors, the president said.

In addition, the Doha Round negotiations have been fraught with difficulties and twists and turns, and global issues have become more pronounced. These are all daunting challenges to the full recovery and long-term growth of the world economy, including in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

At this critical juncture, "we should all the more get united, follow the principle of openness, cooperation and mutual benefit, strengthen coordination and work together to secure the momentum of world economic recovery and promote balanced and orderly economic growth," said the Chinese president.

SUPPORT FOR SOUND DEVELOPMENT OF MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM

Hu expounded on China's position on opposing trade protectionism and supporting the multilateral trading system.

He said the APEC member economies should advance the World Trade Organization's Doha Round negotiations on the basis of locking in the existing achievements and respecting the Doha mandate.

"We are ready to speed up the settlement of the remaining issues and work for comprehensive and balanced outcomes at the negotiations at an early date in order to achieve the goals of the development round," Hu said.

"We must be committed to our promises, strongly oppose trade protectionism in all its manifestations, be vigilant against and correct the 'invisible' protectionism acts in various forms, reduce and eliminate trade barriers, and solve trade disputes through dialogue and coordination, thus creating favorable conditions for full recovery and long-term development of world economy," Hu said.

PROMOTION OF APEC REGIONAL COOPERATION TO MAKE NEW ACHIEVEMENTS

In his address at the two-day APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, President Hu called on the APEC to reform and improve itself to raise the efficiency of cooperation so as to keep advancing with the changing times.

Also, the APEC should focus more on its unique strengths, continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, scale up input and promote even greater achievements in economic and technical cooperation, and continue to increase its institutional dynamism through reform and innovation, Hu said.

To promote APEC economic and technical cooperation, he said, the Chinese government will allocate 10 million U.S. dollars for the establishment of the China-APEC Cooperation Fund to encourage and support participation by relevant Chinese departments and businesses in APEC economic and technical cooperation.

The Chinese president also called on all parties to take an active part in the Fifth APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting in 2010 and continuously support and take part in activities of the Asia-Pacific Network on Forest Rehabilitation and Sustainable Management. His proposal won high appraisal and was warmly applauded by the paticipating leaders.

PROMOTION OF SOLUTION OF GLOBAL ISSUES TO MAKE NEW PROGRESS

The international community is facing severe challenges of climate change, which concerns human survival and development, Hu said.

The international community has actively taken steps to tackle climate change despite the existence of some difficulties in the negotiation process, he said, adding that the world should be full of confidence, redouble efforts, and strive to overcome difficulties in this regard to achieve positive results.

Hu said the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol have laid the legal foundation for the international community to collaborate on addressing climate change and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities has already become a universally accepted and basic principle for tackling climate change.

Also, the "Bali Roadmap" has made clear the requirements and orientation of international cooperation on climate change, he added.

All parties concerned should abide by the above principle and requirements, fully demonstrate their political will, turn their political will into real action to push forward the process of relevant talks and work to realize the goal of strengthening the implementation of the UNFCCC in a comprehensive and sustainable way, the Chinese president said.

In recent years, international talks on implementing the "Bali Roadmap" had made progress and reached consensus on a number of aspects, he said, calling on the international community to build on the consensus and progress and work to reach further consensus, and push for a positive outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks. Hu's proposal was highly appreciated by the participating leaders, especially those from developing countries.

On the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, the Chinese president made extensive contacts with leaders from other APEC members and held talks with his counterparts from Russia, Indonesia, Chile and Peru to exchange views on furthering bilateral ties and deepen pragmatic cooperation.

Yang said that Hu's state visits to Malaysia and Singapore and his attendance at the APEC meeting will undoubtedly generate great and far-reaching influence on full-scale promotion of China's relations with both Malaysia and Singapore as well as ASEAN, and also on their cooperation in meeting global challenges such as the current global financial crisis and climate change, supporting the multilateral trading system, speeding up the process of regional economic integration and promoting long-term development of the APEC.