Chinese premier calls for forging example of openness, development cooperation with ASEAN, GCC

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday called on China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to jointly forge an example in openness, development cooperation and cross-civilization integration.

He made the remarks while addressing the inaugural ASEAN-China-GCC Summit held in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

Li called on the three sides to create a model of cross-region openness, noting that the population and economic aggregate of China as well as the ASEAN and the GCC countries account for approximately one quarter of the world's total.

A full connection of the three markets will surely give rise to a much larger space for development and a more significant scale effect, he noted.

China and the ASEAN have fully completed the negotiations on the upgrade of the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, Li said, adding that an early completion of talks on the free trade area agreement between the GCC and various parties is expected to elevate trilateral trade levels.

He urged the three sides to unswervingly expand regional opening-up, and build the related regions into a large shared market where resources, technologies and talents flow more efficiently, and trade and investment enjoy greater freedom and convenience, so as to fully unleash the powerful effect of open development.

Li also called on the three sides to forge a model of cooperation across different development stages, saying that although the three sides are at different stages of development, their differences are not obstacles to cooperation but complements to each other's strengths.

He expressed China's readiness to deepen strategic alignment with the ASEAN and the GCC on the basis of mutual respect and equal treatment, enhance coordination of macroeconomic policies and strengthen collaboration in industrial specialization.

"We should strive to turn our own strengths into those of everyone, and at the same time help each other tackle new challenges emerging in development, create new ways of international industrial economic cooperation, and promote a coordinated development in which their abilities can be fully explored, and benefits can be doubled and shared," he said.

The Chinese premier urged the three sides to create a model of cross-civilization integration, noting that the three sides are home to vibrant civilizations and share Asian values of peace, cooperation, openness and inclusiveness.

Emphasizing the need for deeper cultural and people-to-people exchanges and a stronger foundation of mutual trust, Li called on the three sides to effectively manage differences through mutual understanding, foster mutually beneficial cooperation through the exchange of ideas, and explore a new path for the inclusive advancement of diverse civilizations.

China, he said, actively supports the initiative of Confucian-Islamic civilizational dialogue proposed by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

China is ready to work with the ASEAN and the GCC to implement the Global Civilization Initiative, promote mutual learning among civilizations and build greater consensus and momentum towards peace and development, the premier concluded.