Address at the G8 Outreach Session

Hu Jintao

President of the People's Republic of China
Constantine Palace, St. Petersburg, 17 July 2006

Dear President Vladimir Putin,
Dear colleagues,

I am very glad to come to St. Petersburg, the home city of President Putin, and to have the opportunity to discuss major global issues with you. In recent years, the G8 has stepped up dialogue with developing countries. I also wish to express my deep appreciation to the Russian Federation for helping make this dialogue possible.

In the world today, peace, development and cooperation are the calling of the times. Economic globalization has deepened. Science and technology are making rapid advances. The flow of factors of production and industrial relocation are gaining speed. The performance of major economies continues to improve, and the world economy on the whole is growing steadily.

At the same time, however, the problems and challenges confronting human development have increased. New hot-spots, serious imbalances in economic development, growing gap between the North and South, prolonged increase in oil prices, trade protectionism in new forms, increasingly acute global challenges of terrorism, environmental pollution, natural calamities and communicable diseases-all these pose real threats to world peace and development. It must be pointed out that many developing countries, particularly the African countries, remain in a disadvantaged position and face a host of difficulties in their development efforts. All these are major issues that the international community must confront and resolve.

Facing both opportunities and challenges, we urgently need to strengthen coordination and cooperation and make concerted efforts to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity.

The agenda items of this meeting, namely global energy security, prevention and control of communicable diseases, education and African development, address both current and future needs. The proper handling of these issues concerns the interests of all countries and peoples and the future of human society.

Dear colleagues,

Global energy security is crucial to ensuring the economic growth and people's livelihood of all countries and to maintaining peace and stability and promoting common development. The accelerated economic globalization has intensified interactions and links among various countries and regions. Every country has the right to fully develop energy resources to promote its development. But few countries can achieve energy security without joining in international cooperation. Persistent high prices in the international energy market have adversely impacted global economic growth. This hurts the interests of both oil producers and consumers. The causes of high oil prices are complex, and the international community needs to increase dialogue and cooperation and take a comprehensive approach to address the problem. This meets the common interests of all countries.

To ensure global energy security, we need to develop and implement a new energy security concept that calls for mutually beneficial cooperation, diversified forms of development and common energy security through coordination. Specifically, efforts should be made in the following three priority areas:

First, enhance cooperation for mutual benefit in energy development and utilization. To ensure global energy security, it is important to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between energy exporters and consumers and among major energy consumers. The international community should strengthen policy coordination and improve mechanisms for monitoring the international energy market and responding to energy emergencies. Oil and natural gas exploitation should be stepped up to increase supply to ensure globalized and diversified energy supply. To meet global energy demand, it is imperative to ensure stable and sustainable international energy supply and reasonable prices on the basis of general balance between supply and demand.

Second, put in place a system for R&D and extension of advanced energy technologies. To conserve energy and develop diverse forms of energy is of far-reaching importance to ensuring long-term global energy security. The international community needs to strengthen R&D and promote energy-saving technology, and support all countries in their efforts to enhance energy efficiency, conserve energy and reduce per unit GDP energy consumption. We should encourage cooperation in clean-coal technology and other efficient ways of using fossil fuel, promote international cooperation in R&D of key technologies in renewable energies, hydrogen power, nuclear power and other energy resources and explore the possibility of building a future global energy supply system that provides clean, safe, economical and reliable energies. We need to view cooperation in these areas as part of the overall effort to ensure sustainable development of human society. We need to increase capital investment, enhance IPR protection and technology extension and enable all countries to share the benefits.

Third, maintain a sound political climate favorable to energy security and stability. Global peace and regional stability are critical to ensuring global energy security. We should join hands to safeguard stability of energy-producing countries and regions, the Middle East in particular, ensure security in international energy shipping routes and prevent geopolitical conflicts from disrupting energy supply. Countries should resolve differences and disputes through dialogue and consultation. Energy issues should not be politicized, still less should countries willfully resort to force in tackling energy issues.

China places great importance on the energy issue. China's energy strategy can be summarized as follows: Give high priority to conservation, rely mainly on domestic supply, develop diverse energy resources, protect the environment, step up international cooperation of mutual benefit, and ensure the stable supply of economical and clean energies. China is a major energy consumer. But China is also a major energy producer. Since the 1990s, China has met over 90% of its energy needs with domestic supply. China has rich coal reserves. Two-thirds of its hydropower resources remain untapped. The development of nuclear, wind and bio-mass power in China has just started and there is great potential for expanding energy supply from domestic sources. China's plan for its economic and social development between 2006 and 2010 calls for doubling the per capita GDP of 2000 while reducing by 20% the energy consumption per unit of GDP at the end of 2005 by 2010. We will make proper use of the international energy market and strengthen win-win cooperation with other energy producers and consumers on the basis of equality and mutual benefit to jointly safeguard global energy security.

Dear colleagues,

To enhance prevention and control of communicable diseases is a pressing task facing the international community. In recent years, frequent outbreaks of emerging communicable diseases, such as SARS and avian flu, together with the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, have posed a threat to people's health and lives, undermined economic and social development of countries concerned and even jeopardized regional and global security and stability.

The international community should establish and improve multilateral cooperation mechanisms for preventing and controlling communicable diseases. An overall plan should be promptly drawn up to fight avian flu and other communicable diseases. Scientific and standard prevention and control measures should be taken. The United Nations, the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and organizations for regional cooperation should play their important role in this regard. We should deepen technological exchange and cooperation and encourage countries to provide each other with technical support and assistance in a bid to achieve early breakthroughs in the basic research of communicable diseases. A platform should be put in place to eventually realize information-sharing on prevention and control of communicable diseases in a timely and standardized manner. Global capacity to fight communicable diseases should be strengthened and more technological and financial support should be given to those poor countries plagued by communicable diseases. High priority should be given to cooperation in epidemiology and prevention and control of avian flu, epidemic monitoring and diagnosis, R&D of vaccines and drug development so that all countries can benefit from scientific and technological achievements and experience in epidemic control. Anti-retroviral drugs should be made easily available through price reduction or patent transfer so that more HIV/AIDS patients will be treated. Research, development and supply of inexpensive yet effective new anti-malaria drugs should be encouraged and supported to treat malaria patients and particularly those in Africa. Countries should cooperate in disease monitoring and reporting, providing health services and prevention and control of common communicable diseases and share their best practices in these areas to promote the well-being of people around the world.

Dear colleagues,

Education is the foundation for economic and social development. It provides an important means for promoting social justice and enhancing mutual understanding among different civilizations. For developing countries, speeding up the development of education and improving the educational level of the workforce will boost employment and economic growth and help narrow their gap in knowledge, human resources and skills. It is of great significance to strengthen cooperation between developed and developing countries in education. We should give priority to the following efforts: improving the education system, raising education quality, promoting continuing education, fostering a culture of learning, strengthening international exchange, sharing educational resources, applying information and communication technologies, expanding access to education, increasing government input and strengthening capacity-building. We should encourage UN agencies and other international organizations and bilateral aid programs to make "education for all" and "continuing education" priority goals, help developing countries improve capacity building in human resources development and ensure their equal participation in international cooperation and rule-making in education.

To promote international cooperation in education, an exchange mechanism can be set up between the G8 and developing countries for us to benefit from each other's experience. China would be happy to host a symposium of presidents of research-oriented universities on international exchange and cooperation in education.

Dear colleagues,

Guided by a scientific outlook on development that is people-centric and calls for comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, we in China are working to promote economic and social development. China gives high priority to and takes an active part in international cooperation in global energy security, prevention and control of communicable diseases and education. China will enhance cooperation and dialogue with major oil consuming and producing countries in energy development, utilization and environmental protection, increase input in international cooperation in prevention and control of communicable diseases and deepen external cooperation in education.

Dear colleagues,

To pursue scientific development internally and peaceful development externally is an important choice and firm commitment made by the Chinese Government and people. China will unswervingly pursue peaceful development and continue to implement the opening-up strategy aimed at win-win outcome. We will work tirelessly with people of all other countries to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity to the benefit of all peoples.

Thank you.