2010-04-16 15:01

BRASILIA - China's development is a strenuous, peaceful, inclusive, commonly beneficial and responsible process, Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Thursday at a summit of the BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Russia's President Dimitry Medvedev (L-R), Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China's President Hu Jintao and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh join hands during a photocall at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia April 15, 2010. [Agencies]

China is the world's largest developing country, and its development is a long and arduous task, Hu said.

"Our per capita GDP has just exceeded $3,000, trailing behind more than 100 countries ... It is truly a heavy task to grow the economy and improve people's livelihood in China," the president said.

"The scale and complexity of the challenges that we face in the course of development are unmatched anywhere else in the world and have been rarely seen in human history," Hu said. "We must make persistent efforts for a long time to come."

Hu stressed that peaceful development is China's only and logical choice, saying it is Chinese people's long-cherished tradition to foster harmony and build amicable ties with neighbors.

"The Chinese people suffered so much in modern history, and we therefore value peace, stability, harmony and freedom more than anything else," he said.

"A prosperous and growing China dedicated to peace and cooperation is willing and able to make new and even greater contribution to mankind's pursuit of peace and development," he added.

The president said China's development is an inclusive, win-win process.

"China pursues a win-win strategy of opening-up and seeks to promote common development of all countries through mutually-beneficial cooperation," Hu said.

"China has taken an active part in the international cooperation to counter the global financial crisis ever since it broke out. We have sent many trade and investment promotion missions and large procurement missions abroad," he added.

China has also made great efforts to support and help developing countries, Hu said. "We have canceled the debts owed by 49 heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries and offered zero-tariff treatment to commodities from more than 40 least developed countries."

Hu noted that China follows a responsible approach in pursuing development.

Although the global financial crisis led to a sharp decline in China's export, a big increase in unemployment and a slowdown in economic growth, China has given top priority to maintaining steady and relatively fast economic growth, and fully implemented and steadily improved the package plan and policy measures in response to the financial crisis, Hu said.

"We achieved an 8.7 percent GDP growth and made important contribution to the world economic recovery," he said.

To ensure steady and relatively fast growth, China has taken it as an important task to speed up the transformation of growth pattern and economic restructuring, Hu said, adding that arduous efforts have been made to promote coordinated growth of consumption, export and investment, with a special emphasis on boosting domestic demand and increasing household consumption.

On the issue of trade balance, Hu said China has no intention to seek trade surplus. "Quite the contrary, we have always placed high importance on achieving equilibrium in the balance of international payments in an effort to maintain macroeconomic stability."

On the issue of exchange rate, he said China has been following a managed floating exchange rate regime in accordance with the principle of independent initiative, controllability and gradualism.

"Despite the tremendous difficulties caused by the global financial crisis, we have kept the RMB exchange rate basically stable and have thus made contribution to the stability of the international economic and financial systems," Hu said.

After attending the summit and paying a state visit to Brazil, Hu left for home earlier than originally scheduled because of a strong earthquake in northwestern China. He also postponed visits to Venezuela and Chile.

Before travelling to Brazil, the Chinese president attended the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 12-13.