It is my honour and privilege to welcome you all on this special occasion to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China. I wish to extend my special appreciation to Their Excellencies the Most Honourable Sir Patrick Allen and the Most Honourable Lady Allen, who kindly grace this occasion with their presence.

In the traditional Chinese culture, the sexagenary cycle is a system of 60 combinations of the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches, two sets of terms used to enumerate years of the civil calendar. It represents the completion of a cyclic process, as well as the starting point of the next cycle. The famous Chinese master Confucius defined age 60 for a person as "my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth" which encourages people to pursue the truth and tolerate criticism and misunderstanding. For China, 60 years only take a percent of its five-thousand-year civilization. But the past 60 years witnessed the fastest changes in China's history and the growing course of an independent, united and harmonious New China.

In the past 60 years, with the unremitting efforts of the Chinese nation, China has made much headway in socio-economic development and realized a historic jump from poverty and weakness to a well-off society. Thanks to the reform and opening up over the past 30 years, China has registered sustained and rapid economic development and made all-round progress in various undertakings. China's gross domestic product has grown at an average annual rate of 9.8%, rising from the 40th in the world in the pre-1949 period to the third in 2008. The contribution of China's development to the world economic growth has exceeded 20 percent.

Dear friends,

China has always put agriculture in a prime position as the Chinese people regard food as their first necessity. They have in the past 60 years experienced a dramatic change from "eat what we have" to "eat what we want", thanks to the profound development in the agricultural sector and the 48-fold increase of per-capita net income in the rural areas and the 158-fold in the urban areas. We are proud of ourselves being able to provide food for 22 percent of the world's population with a mere 12 percent of the world's cultivated land.

On other aspects, the output of China's manufacturing industry as a percentage of the world total has surpassed 9% to become the third largest. In the area of hi-tech industry, a series of breakthroughs have been made in the fields like outer space, nuclear power generation, high performance computing and the third generation mobile communications. China has also become a major trading participant in the world with its total trade volume reaching 2.56 trillion US dollars or 7.7% of the world total in 2008, and its foreign exchange reserves exceeding 2 trillion US dollars at the end of the first half of this year.

From all the above figures, we realized that development is the key to China's success in overcoming difficulties and moving toward the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects by 2020. China's success in running its own affairs and ensuring a better life for the 1.3 billion people is, in itself, a historic contribution to the development and well-being of mankind. China's development has also presented opportunities of mutual benefit to all other countries, and has made stronger the forces for world peace and common development.

At the same time, despite the remarkable achievements in the past six decades, we are still soberly aware of the fact that China remains to be the world's largest developing country with a huge population, weak economic foundation and development imbalances between urban and rural areas, among different regions, and between economic and social realms. China's modernization still has a long way to go and requires the relentless endeavor of generations of the Chinese people.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the past year, the world economy has experienced the most severe challenge since the Great Depression. This unprecedented global financial crisis also took a heavy toll on the Chinese economy. China's trade volume of the first half year has dropped 20%, with a prediction of an annual decrease of 15-20%. But we also saw some positive changes and achieved initial results in our endeavor, although the process is slow and tortuous. In the first half of this year, China's GDP grew by 7.1%, when domestic demand played a stronger role in driving the economy forward. During the first seven months, 6.66 million new urban jobs were created in China, income of urban and rural residents were increased, and overall social stability was maintained.

China's development can not leave the world, while the prosperity of the world can not leave China. China will unswervingly pursue a path of peaceful development. This is the strategy the Chinese government and people have opted for in keeping with the trend of times and our own fundamental interests.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As the whole world is sparing no effort to address the financial crisis, we should not forget that we are also faced with many serious common challenges. Climate change is among them. Each and every country, enterprise and individual should assume a due share of responsibility in coping with the challenge. It is important for us to strengthen the international cooperation in line with the principles and provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, and take into full account the basic national conditions, stage of development, historical responsibility and per-capita emission of different countries in carrying out such cooperation, and uphold the framework of sustainable development and the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities".

China is serious in meeting the challenge and is the first developing country to issue a Climate Change Program which has clearly stated that, from 2005 to 2010, its energy consumption per unit GDP will be reduced by about 20%, main pollutants emissions by 10%, and its forest coverage be increased to 20%. As a responsible country, China will be firmly committed to the road of sustainable development, implement vigorous domestic policy-measures and actions, assume international obligations that are commensurate with our development stage, due responsibilities and actual capacities, and work with the international community to look after the planet Earth - the common home of mankind.

With a view to building an environment-friendly world, we chose the theme of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo as "Better City, Better Life", which aims to explore the relationship between the city and human life in three perspectives: the people, the city and the global environment. Here I wish to extend an invitation to you all to visit Shanghai for the World Expo, enjoy the largest ever exhibition of the treasures of the world and the passionate hospitality of the Chinese people.

Friends,

2009 marks a special year for the "friendly partnership for common development" between China and Jamaica. The successful visit of H. E. Xi Jinping, Vice President of China, has greatly boosted the mutual political trust, economic and trade cooperation, and humanities exchange between our countries, and set up a solid foundation for the comprehensive cooperation in the future. As an old Chinese saying goes, "Long distance never separates close friends and true neighbors don't necessarily live next door". China and Jamaica are geographically far apart and have different social and cultural traditions, but the peoples have expressed an earnest wish to enhance our friendship. I believe, with the visit of Vice President Xi as a driving force, China and Jamaica will work more closely to push forward our bilateral relations and strengthen our coordination and cooperation in the international affairs.

At last, Ladies and Gentlemen, may I propose a toast,

To the good health and successful endeavor of all guests present here tonight,

To the prosperity of our countries and the well-being of our peoples,

And to an everlasting and fulfilling friendship between China and Jamaica!

干杯!

Thank you!