(New York, April 16, 2013) -- When the concepts of China’s “peaceful rise” and the “Chinese Dream” were proposed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the then General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping in 2003 and 2012 respectively, the exciting potential envisioned in the two terms caught world-wide imagination. Now that the election of a new generation of leaders of China was finalized by the Twelfth National People’s Congress and Mr Xi is our new President, the world is waiting to see what new directions the new leaders will introduce as their governing principle for China.

In response to the enthusiasm of the international society to learn more about the progress made by China, and the direction the new leadership might take in moving it forward to achieve its lofty ambitions, China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC) decided to organize this Forum on Sustainable Development and Governance. Also it invited a group of erudite international thinkers to give their interpretation of China’s overall planning approach that covers economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development and to share the country’s experiences during the past three-and-a-half decades of pursuing sustainable development.

Speakers presenting their views to an audience of various national delegates to the United Nations plus U.S. scholars include Professor Cheng Siwei, the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth and Tenth National People’s Congresses; Professor Qu Xing, President of China Institute of International Studies; and Professor Yao Zhizhong, Assistant Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

On behalf of the Chairman of China Energy Fund Committee, Ye Jianming, Mr. Chan Chauto, the President of the forum organizer, expressed his grateful acknowledgement for the support and assistance of the following organizations: the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the President of the 67th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America and the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York.

Mr Chan stated that “the story of China was well told and interpreted by President Xi Jinping during the Boao Forum that had just ended in Hainan Province. Mr Xi’s thought-provoking speech concisely summarized China’s past history while marking the beginning of a new story of China in the future.

“Today, the honoured guests who travelled long distances to attend this Forum are both the witnesses and tellers of another great story about China. As we know, the history of China is a complex and sometimes painful one involving national humiliation. However, then came a period of solemn and stirring striving for national independence and more recently an astonishing history of expansion and economic development.

“During its years of seeking national independence, a unique spiritual force of China was evoked and nurtured, inspired by the ‘Long March’. As the author-historian Harrison Salisbury, wrote in ’Long March: The Untold Stories’, “This spiritual force has been guiding the country in the past in achieving victories and it will remain the guiding force to lead its 1.3 billion people to march toward an unpredictable future as well. During the years of peaceful development, China worked hard to lift 600 million of its residents from poverty with the assistance and support lent by its foreign friends. Now it has successfully transformed itself into a middle-income country.”

Mr. Chan also reassured the Forum that CEFC will continue to engage itself closely with the missions of the United Nations and work actively to help fulfill its obligations as a civil organization enjoying Special Consultative status with the UN ECOSOC, to facilitate and smooth the exchanges and communications between all member countries.

Dr Patrick Ho, Deputy Chairman and Secretary-General of CEFC, said that while there had already been a number of forums on sustainable development held at the United Nations, the themes of those forums were less clear than the comprehensive and balanced approach now proposed by the Chinese Government. This approach reflected China’s scientific outlook on development and incorporated the country’s ambition to continue its overall development in five inter-related fields -- economic, political, social, cultural and ecological. Dr Ho added that “the Chinese dream is a big dream comprised of many little ones; it is a dream that has been shaped and passed down through some 5,000 years of Chinese history. It is not only the dream of 1.3 billion Chinese people now alive today, but also a dream of all humankind in pursuing a united and harmonious world.”

Dr Ho pointed out that this was the second Forum to be organized by CEFC and staged at UN Headquarters with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN. “The Forum will mark three ‘firsts’,” he said. “The first time a civil organization has held a forum at the Headquarters of the United Nations on the theme of China’s development; the first time China’s experiences and development path have been introduced to the international community with insightful explanations in New York, widely regarded as the political-economic center of the world; and the first time so soon after China’s annual National People’s Congress that senior Chinese scholars have gone abroad to explain the new thoughts, policies and directions of the new leadership of China.”

Professor Cheng Siwei reviewed in his keynote speech the rapid economic growth and development path of China since the reforms and opening-up in 1978-80, adding: “China now urgently needs to transform its development model in the context of the global recession following the financial crisis. China will have to learn lessons from its own development path and seek a comprehensive development model that covers its progress in the economic, political, social, cultural and ecological sectors.

Prof Cheng explained, “China is a huge developing country with dual economic structure and in transition to socialist market economy. Although we have experienced rapid economic growth since 1978, we must change our development pattern according to the lessons we learnt from our own practice and the recent global financial crisis. We should take economic development as the central task and, pursuing development in a scientific way as the underlying guideline, advance in an all-round way involving economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress. Thus we will achieve development in a scientific way that puts people first and is comprehensive, balanced and sustainable. We also should change our growth model from relying on foreign trade to relying on domestic consumption, from extensive growth to intensive growth, and from external momentum to internal momentum. We should carefully treat the relationship between rule of law and rule of man, efficiency and equity, government and market, centralization and decentralization. Our goal is to double our 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents and to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020.”

Professor Qu Xing said the new Chinese leadership had adopted China’s new ideology of sustainable development by taking into account all major interconnected sectors of the country. Concerning the economy, he believes China’s future performance will largely depend on the success of its urbanization program in tandem with the transformation of its present export-oriented economy to one targeted at ever-growing domestic consumption. In political development, checks-and-balances of power will remain a central issue, but the Chinese characteristics will be retained. In the cultural sector, the key will be to strengthen the establishment of a socialist value system. To advance social development, a social protection network that covers the entire population will be established. To protect the country’s ecology, the main thrust will be to focus on R & D related to environmental protection.

Professor Yao Zhizhong said: “China’s major economic achievement is its successful transformation from a low-income country to a middle-income country in less than 30 years. The main features were to transform an agricultural-rural society to an industrial and urbanized society, and from a planned economy to a market economy. In the coming years, how to avoid the middle-income trap and overcome related problems will be China’s most critical challenges.”

Other distinguished guests at the Forum included Mr. Vuk Jeremić, President of the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and other senior officials of the Secretariat of the United Nations and representatives of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations.