国内英语新闻:Chinese Vice President addresses UCLG meeting in Guangzhou

GUANGZHOU, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the 2009 UCLG World Council Meeting & Guangzhou International Sister Cities Conference, which gathered more than 1,000 representatives from about 210 cities and local organizations of more than 60 nations.

    Founded in May 2004, the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is the largest local government organization in the world. The mayor of Guangzhou is the current co-president of UCLG.

Xi said the UCLG has become an important platform for multilateral exchanges and cooperation as well as a bridge of friendship for global cities. He believed that the UCLG would be able to integrate wisdom and strength of urban planning and management from different nations, and play a positive role in promoting peace and development of the world.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (L) speaks at the opening ceremony of the 2009 United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Council Meeting & Guangzhou International Sister Cities Conference held in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 13, 2009

    Xi pointed that the world economy is at a critical stage, recovering from the recession due to the global financial crisis. The theme of this meeting, "Cities: Approach to Global Financial Crisis", is a topic just in time.

    He raised three suggestions to cities and local governments around the world on how to jointly overcome the difficulties of the global financial crisis.

    He called on the UCLG members to deepen pragmatic cooperation in the areas such as economy, trade, science and technology, in order to boost the recovery of the world economy and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.

    He also suggested the UCLG members adhere to the policy of open market and fight against the trade and investment protectionism with concrete actions.

    Furthermore, he pointed out that the world cities and local governments should encourage innovation to promote new growth points and a new round of restructuring of global industries.

    In the speech, Xi also introduced the achievements of social and economic development made in the past 60 years since the founding of the New China and especially since the opening up and reform policy was carried out 30 years ago.

    During the past 30 years, the industrialization and urbanization process of China has dramatically accelerated, he said. The urbanization rate was only 17.9 percent in 1978, and the figure jumped to 45.7 percent in 2008, a growth of one percentage point per year.

    Xi also explained the policies that China has taken to respond to the global financial crisis. He said although the world economy had showed some positive changes, the full recovery would still have a long way to go.

    China would do its best to stabilize its own economic development, while playing an active role in international cooperation in order to promote the recovery of world economy, he noted.

    He reiterated that China would continue to support the developing countries with a responsible attitude and fulfill its commitments of providing foreign assistance so as to push forward the realization of UN Millennium Development Goals.

    Beijing Municipal government and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) jointly held the World Council Meeting of UCLG in June, 2005. This year's UCLG World Council Meeting was co-hosted by CPAFFC and the Guangzhou Municipal government.