Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (2nd L) attends the launch ceremony for a complex for the China-PSCs cooperation platform before the opening ceremony of the 5th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs), in Macao, south China, Oct. 11, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Rao Aimin)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China values its friendship with Portuguese-speaking countries and is ready to provide help to those in Asia and Africa within China's capacity. Since the launch of the forum, China has signed framework agreements to offer 6.09 billion yuan worth of concessional loans, reduced or canceled 230 million yuan worth of matured debts, and trained 7,600 professionals for Asian and African Portuguese-speaking countries. All eight assistance measures pledged by China at the last ministerial meeting have been implemented.
Now let me take this opportunity to announce major highlights of the 18 new and greater assistance measures China will implement in the next three years, which include the following:
-- No less than 2 billion yuan in grant assistance for Asian and African Portuguese-speaking countries, mainly for agriculture, trade and investment facilitation, prevention and treatment of malaria, traditional medicine research and other such projects that aim to improve people's lives.
-- No less than 2 billion yuan in concessional loans for Asian and African Portuguese-speaking countries, mainly for linking up industries, cooperation on production capacity and deepening infrastructure cooperation.
-- Cancellation of 500 million yuan in matured interest-free debts for least developed Asian and African Portuguese-speaking countries.
--Continued sending of medical teams with 200 personnel to Asian and African Portuguese-speaking countries, twinning of hospitals among forum members and maternal and child health programs and short-term free clinical consultation services.
-- 2,000 training opportunities and 2,500 person-year Chinese government scholarships to forum members.
-- Encouragement of the setting-up and upgrading of overseas business cooperation zones in forum members by Chinese companies.
-- Building maritime meteorological monitoring stations and other facilities to tackle disasters and climate change in case of need in forum members.
Last but not least, we will support the establishment of a financial service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, an association of business leaders, a cultural exchange center, a bilingual human resource training base and a youth innovation and entrepreneurship center in Macao and offer 30 opportunities for in-service degree programs to forum members to be jointly undertaken by the Mainland and Macao.
Macao SAR will play an important role in providing the platform and supporting the implementation of these measures.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Many of you follow trends in the Chinese economy closely. Let me give you a briefing about latest developments. Despite the weak recovery of the world economy in recent years and growing impact of deep-seated imbalances within China, the Chinese economy has been operating within a reasonable range, achieving steady growth and continued progress in restructuring and upgrading at the same time. It remains one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world and contributes over 25 percent to world economic growth. The 6.7 percent growth in the first half of this year is by no means easy, given the size of our 10 trillion-dollar economy. The increment of 6.7 percent growth, over 800 billion U.S dollars a year, is in fact bigger than that generated by double-digit growth in the past, amounting to the economic aggregate of a medium-sized country.
Coming to the third quarter, the Chinese economy is not only continuing with the good momentum seen in the first half of the year, but also showing some positive changes with bigger contribution by consumption and services to the economic growth and improvement of major indicators which were previously weak or declining. Growth rate of industrial output, corporate performance and investment are all looking up. Downturn in private investment, in particular, has been curbed. Expectations have improved.
