2010-06-28 00:10

Both the big drops in the country's trade surplus and the swift trend toward current account balance have been major signs of China's more balanced economic development, Hu pointed out.

However, Hu said the government and people of his country are "soberly aware" of the difficulties and challenges ahead, due to the large population, weak economic foundation, lack of balance in the development between urban and rural areas and serious environmental and resource constraints of the country.

The Chinese president promised to accelerate the transformation of his country's economic development pattern to implement the scientific outlook.

Meanwhile, Hu said it is "imperative and incumbent" for the G20 to help developing countries achieve full development and narrow the development gap between the North and South.

Developing countries have been hit hard by the financial crisis and they find it a daunting task to overcome the difficulties caused by the crisis, Hu said in his speech.

"We should not neglect the development aspirations of other developing countries, which take up over 85 percent of countries in the world," he said.

It was incumbent upon the G20 to provide stronger political drive, greater economic resources and better institutional guarantee for development, he added.

Hu urged developed countries to honor in good faith their commitments on official development assistance, market opening, and debt reduction and cancellation.

He also called on the countries and international organizations to scale up financial and technological support for developing countries and help them build stronger capacity for self development.

"The World Bank, the IMF and other international financial institutions should use their resources to help, on a priority basis, developing countries, the least developed countries in particular," he stressed.

Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, China has provided assistance to developing countries through multiple means and channels, Hu said.

"China will continue to offer assistance to other developing countries as its ability permits within the framework of South-South cooperation, and do its utmost to help other developing countries achieve development," said the president.

On the sidelines of the G20 summit, President Hu on Sunday met new Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on further advancing bilateral ties.

It was the first meeting between Hu and Kan since Kan became Japanese prime minister early this month.

Hu said leaders of the two countries should maintain close contact and help promote extensive dialogue and exchanges between the governments, political parties, parliaments and defense authorities of both countries.

Hu said the two countries should expand trade and deepen economic cooperation so as to realize mutual benefits and win-win results for both sides.

He said the two countries should fully utilize the mechanism of the high-level economic dialogue to advance the growth of bilateral trade and economic cooperation in a stable way.

The Chinese leader said the two countries should strengthen coordination and cooperation on regional and international affairs, and expand common interests.

Hu said the two sides should join hands in maintaining peace and stability in the Northeast Asia region and pushing forward regional cooperation and development of the East Asia region. They should also carry out dialogues, coordination and cooperation on the global challenges of international financial crisis and climate change.

Hu said the two countries should properly handle the sensitive issues between them, calling on both sides to proceed from the overall situation to handle these issues in a cautious, proper way and prevent them from affecting the stable growth of the bilateral relations.

Kan said the Japanese government attached great importance to the development of the Japan-China relations, adding that this is not only very important for both countries, but also of great significance to peace and development of Asia.

President Hu added China is ready to work with Japan to seize the current opportunity to push for the extensive growth of the mutually beneficial relationship of strategic importance on the basis of the four political documents signed by both sides.

For his part, Kan said his government will advance the Japan-China relations according to the principles and spirit of the four political documents.

Kan said the Japanese government is ready to work with China to push forward regional cooperation in East Asia and properly handle the problems arising in the development of the bilateral links.

The China-Japan relations have witnessed major progress in various fields and benefited the two sides significantly since the normalization of diplomatic ties 38 years ago.

China is Japan's largest trading partner, its biggest export market and the primary choice of outbound investment, while Japan is China's third largest trading partner and second biggest source of foreign investment.