Before discussing this topic, we must recall the 20th century which will soon be over. Mr. Kissinger, former secretary of state of the United States, once said: "It is a century full of chaos." Nakasone Yasuhiro, former prime minister of Japan, also considered it to be the most miserable of centuries with more wars than any other in human history. Despite the many contradictions, conflicts and ups and downs, the fast growth of the world economy and the rapid development of science and technology in this century are very encouraging, especially the sudden rise of Asia. This fact is indisputable. Three years after the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis, the economy of the region has turned around, and is marching toward full recovery. In 1999, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the developing countries in Asia increased by an average of 6.2 percent, or 3.9 percentage points higher than that of 1998, and their industrial production has been restored to the same level as before the outbreak of the financial crisis. In southeast Asia which suffered heavily in the crisis, last year's average growth rate reached 3.2 percent in 1999, as against a doorcase of 7.5 present in 1998. It is predicted that the GDP will increase by 4.6 percent in 2000. This is the result of the joint efforts of all the countries in Asia.

We all remember that when the Asian financial storm struck, there were many pessimistic opinions coming from outside Asia. Some said that it would be extremely hard for the Asian economy to recover within a short period of time, and some believed that the Asian economy would not show its former brilliance unless the Asian countries learned from European and US economic models, including administration models. I remember that in autumn of 1997, at the ceremony laying the foundation stone of the Pudong Aquarium in Shanghai, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew said to me that each country in Asia has its own conditions, and the economies of some would recover within two to three years, while for others it would take four to five years. The facts today have proved his prediction to be correct. After the test of the financial crisis, the people of Asia are full of confidence in their wisdom and strength.

Over the past 20 or more years since the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, China has made great achievements in its economy. The average GDP growth rate in the past 20 of more years has been over 11 percent; the size of China's economy rose from 11th in the world at the end of the 1970s, to seventh; and total import and export volume increased from 32nd to ninth. Around 1990, the Chinese economy was overheating. However, the Chinese government decisively put into place measures of macro regulation and control to achieve a soft landing of the economy. As a result, the Asian financial crisis had comparatively less influence on China. During the fierce fluctuations of Asian finances, China did not devalue the Renminbi, and tried to support those countries with greater difficulties with its limited finance. By stabilizing its own economy, China has contributed to the stability of the economy in the Asian-Pacific region and the world.

As a country in Asia, China is naturally greatly concerned about its economic relations and friendship with other countries in Asia. Over the pas 20 years, bilateral trade volume between China and other Asian countries has increased by a large margin. In the 1970s, the trade volume between China and Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the countries in southeast Asia was very small. In 1972, the trade volume between China and Japan was only US$ 1.1 billion, a figure which rose to US$ 66.1 billion in 1999. The trade volume between China and the Republic of Korea in 1999 was over US$ 25 billion; that between China and Malaysia, over US$ 5.2 billion, that between China and Singapore, over US$ 8.5 billion; that between China and Thailand, over US$ 4.2 billion; that between China and Indonesia, over US$ 4.8 billion; and that between China and Vietnam, over US$ 1.4 billion. Hence we can calculate that the total trade volume between China and other Asian countries exceeds that between China and America, and that between China and Europe. Through this bilateral trade, China has obtain great benefits, at the same time providing a larger marker for the countries of Asia, thus powerfully promoting the development of the Asian Economy.

At present the process for China's entry into the WTO is accelerating. After entering the WTO, China's opening up will reach a new level. Now China has become one of the countries attracting most foreign capital. Since 1978, China has approved the founding of over 300,000 foreign-funded enterprises, and has actually utilized over US$ 250 billion of direct foreign investment. When the Chinese economy joins the world economy, we shall open wider to the outside world in energy, transport, telecommunications, environmental protection, finance, insurance, tourism, commerce, trade and other fields, and shall adopt various ways to absorb foreign capital for the transformation of state-owned enterprises. Of course, China will further perfect its foreign-related economic regulations in accordance with the regulations of the WTO, and improve the domestic economic structure while welcoming the WTO challenge, so as to ensure the healthy development of the Chinese economy.

Joining the WTO is an important embodiment of China's active participation in economic globalization, and will inject new vitality into the further development of economic globalization. Though different countries have different opinions on economic globalization, some praise it and the others criticize it. It is, after all, an objective trend, and a world economic tide that can not be reversed. Facing the challenge, following the trend, avoiding damage and working hard to set up a new, just and reasonable international political and economic order are tasks which we all face.

Since the countries of Asia are close to China geographically and culturally, it will be easiest for them to enter the Chinese market by making use of the opportunity of China's entry to the WTO, and China is willing to establish closer relations with other countries in Asia.

Here, I would like to stress that economic development depends on a peaceful international environment. For many years, China has worked hard to safeguard world peace and stability and has actively contributed to this end. As early as in the 1980s, before the end of the cold war, Mr. Deng Xiaoping said that "peace and development are the main currents of today's age," believing that it is only necessary for all countries to uphold the norms for international relations for world war to avoided. Therefore, China has resolutely shifted its focal points of work and taken the safeguarding of world peace and the promotion of common development as the fundamental objectives of the opening up policy, regarded the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence) as the basis for its foreign policy, and clearly put forward the view that developing relations between countries should transcend social systems and ideologies. We should remember that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was created by us, the Asian people. Guided by this ideology, China has further developed its relations with other countries in Asia. For instance, China has restored diplomatic relations with the Indonesia which were suspended for 23 years; established formal diplomatic relations with Singapore, Brunei and the Republic of Korea; and normalized relations with Mongolia, Laos and Vietnam. Thus, China has favorable relations with all countries in Asia. On this basis, China will, together with other countries, continue to work hard to establish a new, just, reasonable and equal international order on the basis of mutual benefit.

To realize the reunification of the country, the Chinese government has put forward and implemented the principle of " one country, two systems, " which has been successfully adopted in Hong Kong and Macao, and has provided better conditions for the prosperity and development of the two regions. We believe that only a resolution of the Taiwan issue according to the principle of "one country, two systems," can benefit the stability of both sides of the straits and the whole of Asia. After the election of new leaders of Taiwan region, the Chinese government expressed, once again, its opposition to Taiwan independence and its desire to realize the reunification of China through peaceful means. We hope that the new leaders of Taiwan will widen their field of vision, thoroughly abandon advocacy of separatism and go down the bright road of peaceful reunification. We also hope that all our international friends will support and promote the reunification of China.

Today's meeting is in Japan. I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear that China has always attached great importance to developing relations with Japan, and treasured the long-standing neighborly friendship with the Japanese people. Viewing the history of Sino-Japanese relations, in spite of the setbacks and unhappiness of the past, over the last 50 years the main trend has been good neighborly relations between the peoples of the two countries. The current relations between China and Japan, which have not come easily, should be attributed to the efforts of the peoples of the two countries, far-sighted politicians of the two countries and personages of all circles. The friendly and cooperative relations between China and Japan not only embody the friendship between the people of the two countries, but also successfully display the healthy relations between two countries based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Standing, as we are, at this transition from one century to another, we should judge Sino-Japanese relations, draw lessons from history, face the future, follow the historical trend, get red of all interferences and constantly promote the steady development of Sino-Japanese relations.

As humanity enters the new century, the world has entered the information era marked by the widespread use of the Internet. Throughout the age of steam, the age of electric power, the age of radio, the age og atomic energy, and the age of computers (though these can not be regarded as scientific divisions), Asia has always fallen behind by several decades. Now, all Asian countries have started to enter the information era. We must recognize that Asian countries do not command the core design technologies for hardware and software though Asia is only a little behind in the use of the Internet.

The development of information technology and the challenge of the new economy have made Asian countries redevelop their economies in a new environment different from that several years ago. We should prevent a widening of the gap between the countries of Asia in economic growth because of backward information technology (from a good analytical article dispatched from Bangkok, carried in Japanese Economic News), and prevent a reduction in the speed of growth of the Asian economy soon after its recovery because of the same cause. The best way for us to resist future financial crisis is to promote the growth of Asian high-tech industries, including the growth of high-tech research and development. This includes seizing the opportune moment to build the Internet as an infrastructure facility; selectively develop the IT industry so that it plays a motive power role; transform traditional industries with high technology; develop the electronics business, and promote a rational economic structure; and make efforts to build the new economy and achieve sustainable development in Asia. Each country in Asia must make its due contributions to the information ear, and seize this opportunity to make up for the backwardness of past ages.

After a storm, a bright sky is bound to come. After the severe test of the financial crisis, a more splendid Asian light will be surely appear in the global economic development of the new century.