The 6th Western China International Forum was held in Chengdu, China on October 23, 2013. Vice Premier of the State Council Wang Yang attended the forum and delivered keynote speeches, Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia, David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Mongolian Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag, Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Tozik, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Vice-President of the French Senate and Former Prime Minister, Jan Mattsson, Executive Director of United Nations Office for Project Services, and Du Ying, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission attended the forum and delivered speeches. Heads of delegations from 106 countries and regions, relevant Chinese ministries and commissions and various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) attended the forum.
Focusing on the theme of Balanced Development and Co-creating Prosperity, the forum participants conducted extensive and in-depth exchanges, and reached multiple consensuses:
―Regional integration is an inevitable trend to adapt to economic globalization. Different countries and different regions are closely linked to exchange development experience and discuss development plans, which is of great significance to promote the world economy and achieve regional co-prosperity and win-win cooperation, and is also an important choice for coping with the current difficulties of global economic recovery;
―Economic globalization is developing in a balanced, inclusive, and win-win direction. Realizing the inclusive growth of the well-being of all countries is the common aspiration of all people. Faced with the reality of unprecedentedly deepening economic interdependence, all countries in the world must join hands, help each other, give full play to their comparative advantages, promote closer economic cooperation, and establish a more balanced and new type of global partnership for development.
―If a society or a country wants to grow stronger, it must be committed to achieving common prosperity for all, which is conducive to the benefit of people. At the same time, balanced development is the only way to achieve regional integration, eliminate various trade barriers, realize trade freedom, foster a unified market, and establish regional competitive advantages in the era of economic globalization;
―Balanced development and shared prosperity depend on international cooperation with broad and lasting mutual trust that can create new economic opportunities. The depth and quality of the relationship between people in different countries determine the level of joint success in the future. Pan-Asian economic and trade cooperation should be more committed to innovative cooperation methods at a new historical point;
―Every country in the world has the opportunity to benefit from global competition. Pan-Asian countries and regions will continue to invest for long-term balanced growth and development, and create numerous opportunities for sustainable growth and development. These opportunities will will lead to the common prosperity of the world economy and the pan-Asian economic cooperation parties.
―Western China Development Program provides a series of successful practical examples for regional balanced development. The Program has effectively changed the poverty and backwardness of Western China, expanded Chinese domestic market space, eased the constraints of resource bottlenecks, increased the room for China to develop, and also brought huge business opportunities for companies from all over the world. The strong leadership of the government in Western China and the hard work of the local people are also the lessons to be learned in order to promote balanced development. Western China International Forum has played an indispensable role in the process of pan-Asian regional integration;
All parties at the forum agreed to issue the Declaration Essence to Deepen Pan-Asian Integration and Balanced Development, and work together to achieve the following goals:
I. Continue to implement the declarations issued by the previous sessions of Western China International Forum to ensure the realization of the goals and visions advocated therein.
II. Further promote trade cooperation between the pan-Asian countries, and open up new forms, new spaces, and new areas for pan-Asian intra-regional trade cooperation. Actively promote Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations, deepen economic cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion, enhance the level of trade cooperation liberalization and facilitation, strengthen cooperation between border areas and local governments of neighboring countries, and promptly remove obstacles to regional cooperation.
III. Strive to create investment and trade opportunities that are conducive to the balanced development of the pan-Asian region, and achieve sustainable economic growth in the pan-Asian region.
IV. The pan-Asian countries will work hard to reduce various forms of investment and trade costs and foster global market comparative advantages.
V. Western China will continue to furthur expand trade and investment. In particular, the new wave of Western China Development Program is in a golden period of accelerated development, which will surely provide continuous power for the balanced development of Pan-Asian regional integration.
VI. The pan-Asian countries will use their respective strengths to provide support and assistance to promote the balanced development of pan-Asia under the principle of equality and win-win results.
VII. In view of the diversity and imbalance in the development of parties in pan-Asian region, support the preparation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and discuss the establishment of Pan-Asian Development Bank or Pan-Asian Development Fund when the time is right to provide financial support for the balanced development of the pan-Asian region. At the same time, more developed economies are welcome to participate in pan-Asian integration and balanced development.
VIII. Peace is the foundation of world trade freedom, balanced development, economic prosperity, and people's happiness. Countries in pan-Asian region will work together to enhance mutual trust among countries and people and eliminate all kinds of contradictions and conflicts. By strengthening youth exchanges, deepening people-to-people exchanges, consolidating traditional friendship, safeguarding common interests, opposing any form of hegemony and terrorist acts, and respecting diversified beliefs and cultural value traditions, we can create a lasting peaceful environment for a balanced development of pan-Asia.
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