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)
