Wang Guangya addressed at the launching ceremony of CAA's new site construction

Dear colleagues, teachers and friends,

As a diplomatic veterans who has been involved in the APEC work, I am pleased and most cordial to attend the launching ceremony of China APEC Academy’s new site construction. 

The establishment of China APEC Academy was a major initiative put forward by Chinese President Jiang Zemin at Shanghai APEC 2001, aiming at establishing close relationship amongst government, business and academia and together form a joint force to promote the APEC process. In April 2002, the inaugural ceremony of China APEC Academy was held in the Great Hall of the People. Vice Premier Qian Qichen attended the meeting and delivered an important speech. Qian Qichen stressed that the establishment of China APEC Academy was a significant move to strengthen the cooperation amongst government, business and academia, which had great significance for promoting APEC human resources development and economic and technical cooperation. He expected that China APEC Academy could take teachers and academic advantages and take full account of the actual needs of the government work and enterprise management in its future work in oder to serve China's economic and social development.

In the past seven years, relying on the APEC Study Center at Nankai University (ASCNK), China APEC Academy carried out a large number of thematic studies, wrote a great deal of basic information, academic papers and research works and put forward a lot of forward-looking, constructive and enlightening suggestions, which provided important references for the Chinese government and enterprises to participate in the APEC cooperation. At the same time, China APEC Academy also actively played an active role as the training base to train a large number of talents with knowledge of international economics in oder to provide huamen resources support for China’s better participation in the APEC economic cooperation. In the process of building China APEC Academy, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Press and Publication Administration, CCPIT and other relevant ministries and commissions as well as Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and Nankai University provided great support in various aspects, and the business community also provided generous financial support. China APEC Academy can not make the present achievements without your efforts and contributions.

Currently, the economic situation in the world and Asia-Pacific region is undergoing complex and profound changes, and the APEC process is facing new opportunities and challenges. The global financial crisis made the international trade in the Asia-Pacific region shrink greatly, foreign investment plummeted, economic growth fell sharply and many economies suffer enormous losses. A number of economies take measures to expand domestic demand and stimulate economic growth, and some economies tend to care much about the domesitc market. APEC is faced with new difficulties in promoting regional economic integration, trade and investment liberalization, business facilitation as well as economic and technical cooperation. However, the financial crisis also provides an opportunity for APEC to expand its influence, promote unity and cooperation among its members, strengthen pragmatic cooperation and narrow the development gap. In this situation, for China's participation in APEC cooperation, opportunities and challenges coexist.

China APEC Academy, as an important channel and platform for China's academia to study, track and participate in the APEC cooperation and in accordance with the requirements of the scientific outlook on development and integration of domestic and international politics, can actively play its unique strengths and close ties with government, business and academia, promote the tripartite cooperation amongst government, business and academia, thoroughly study major issues related to APEC cooperation, and actively offer advice and suggestions for China's participation in the APEC process so as to serve China’s diplomatic work and economic development. At this point, I would like to put forward a few suggestions for the future work of China APEC Academy:

1. To track situations and grasp policies
China APEC Academy should continue to maintain close relationships with the relevant government departments, keep abreast of the latest development in the APEC cooperation, grasp the country’s principles and policies on the APEC-related issues. It also should integrate the above-mentioned conditions with the Academy’s work closely in order to effectively meet the actual needs of the domestic economic development.

2. To build bridges and exchange information
China APEC Academy should take advantage of its extensive ties with the business community to initiatively find out and collect the specific expectations and requirements of the business community in the APEC cooperation, and timely send feedback to the government departments so as to ensure the government sector’s participation in APEC's work more relevance and timeliness, and better serve China's domestic economic development. At the same time, the Academy should also actively promote the achievements of the APEC cooperation to the business community, and make full use of its platform to build a bridge for business communities between China and other APEC member economies in order to promote information exchange, seek business opportunities and cooperation to achieve win-win situation.

3. To integrate resources and focus on the key issues
There are a lot of APEC research institutions in the country, but they are relatively dispersed and need to be developed. China APEC Academy should take advantage of its own brand to promote the research of APEC key issues, in particular, put forward their views and policy recommendations on the major and pressing issues in order to to provide an important intellectual support for government decision-making.

4. To extend exchanges and expand the influence
China APEC Academy should further enhance the international exchange and cooperation and conduct more dialogue and cooperation with foreign counterparts and similar institutions, not only actively promoting China's views on the APEC cooperation and international and regional issues, introducing China’s policy and measures and expanding their influence, but also seeing other countries and regions’ views, positions and policies on APEC-related issues so as to provide a reference for China to do the APEC cooperation work well.

As the focal point, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pays much attention to the self-building of China APEC Academy and its research work. For many years the Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps close contact with the Academy. In the future, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to actively support for the Academy’s construction and its work together with relevant departments.

I believe that under support of the relevant ministries and commissions, on active cultivation of Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and Nankai University as well as the proffered assistance by the business community, we are able to get China APEC Academy better, and gradually create it as an important think tank for China’s participation in the APEC Cooperation, a significant linkage for the combination of government, business and academia, an important base for human resources training as well as an important platform for international academic exchanges!

Thank you!