Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered an important speech at the welcome dinner hosted by the Sweden-China Trade Council in Stockholm, June 10, 2007, pointing out that China would continue to implement the strategy of win-win opening up, adhere to the basic national policy of opening to the outside world, expand economic and trade cooperation with other countries and regions in the world and promote common development and prosperity.

The welcome dinner was held in Grand Hotel, Stockholm. When President Hu entered the ball room at 19:20 local time, all the participants stood up and applauded warmly.

In his speech Hu said that with the joint efforts of both sides the China-Sweden relationship has progressed steadily over half of a century and stands in the best historical period. The continuously expanding economic and trade cooperation is a bright spot of China-Sweden relationship. China has been the largest trade partner of Sweden in Asia for 4 years in a row. Such achievements are attributed to the hard work of all the entrepreneurs present at the dinner as well as the business communities of both countries.

Since the launch of the reform and opening-up program in 1978, China has witnessed a rapidly growing economy, boosted productivity and increased the well-being of its people. China's continued and fast economic development has become a major driving force behind the stable growth of the global economy, improved the lives of the Chinese people and offered more development opportunities to the world. However, China remains the largest developing country in the world and needs to make long-term efforts to realize modernization. The most pressing task facing China is to grow its economy and increase people's welfare. China is firmly committed to peaceful development, concentrates on development at home and endeavors to uphold world peace and common development internationally, said Hu.

He stressed that being committed to peaceful development complies with the Chinese national spirit forged over several thousand of years, the lofty pursuit of loving and cherishing peace of the Chinese people, the trend of the times and the development direction of the human society. Following the road of peaceful development is a necessary requirement for China to modernize itself. What China needs most is an international environment of peace. China hopes grow itself by upholding world peace and promote world peace through its development.

Concerning China's economic growth, Hu emphasized the following points. First, China will be committed to sustainable growth. We adhere to the people-oriented and scientific concept of sustainable growth, the national policy of saving resources and protecting environment and a new path of industrialization. We will actively readjust the economic structure, accelerate the transform of economic growth pattern, endeavor to raise innovation capacity, develop the recycling economy and build an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly society. Second, China will be committed to the strategy of win-win opening up. We will stick to the basic national policy of opening to the outside world and continue to broaden economic and trade cooperation with other countries and regions. Third, China will be committed to the protection of intellectual property rights. To protect intellectual property rights serves the interest of all countries and complies with China's efforts of opening wider to the outside world, improving investment environment and enhancing innovation ability. China will continue to improve related laws and regulations, raise its people's awareness of intellectual property rights protection and protect the legitimate rights and interests of intellectual property right owners. As the Chinese economy stands in another round of growth period, China's industrialization, urbanization and modernization are speeding up and market expanding rapidly, which has created great development space and potential. China's growth will bring huge business opportunities to all the other countries around the world including Sweden.

Hu said that Scandinavian countries boast the characteristic of loving peace, promoting development, supporting cooperation, actively participating in international affairs and assisting developing countries. China values the positive role played by Scandinavian countries in international affairs and expects to join hands with them to maintain world peace and boost common development.

He added that China and Scandinavian countries enjoy promising prospects of strengthening the mutually beneficial cooperation and complementing each other with advantages. He expressed hope that the entrepreneurs of Scandinavian countries seize opportunities to explore the Chinese market. He raised the following suggestions on reinforcing China's mutually beneficial cooperation with Scandinavian countries: expanding trade, optimizing trade structure, improving trade cooperation and dialogue mechanism, building a more favorable and efficient trade environment and strengthening cooperation; deepening cooperation in the areas of new energy and environmental protection, especially in cutting energy use in buildings and promoting hybrid power and clean energy; encouraging the technological cooperation between small and medium-sized businesses of the two countries and establishing the platform for their cooperation; taking the opportunities of Beijing Olympic Games and Shanghai World Expo to broaden cooperation, specially in such fields as venue construction, facility utilization and logistics management.

Hu noted that as the players of economic and trade cooperation businesses are the driving force behind the growth of China-Sweden relations. The Chinese government supports the mutually beneficial cooperation between businesses of the two nations in various fields and at all levels. He expressed the sincere hope that entrepreneurs of both countries join hands to open a new page of China-Sweden economic and trade cooperation.

Chairman Bo Landin of the Sweden-China Trade Council, representatives of the Swedish business community, Chairman Michael Treschow of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and Swedish Minister for Education and Research Lars Leijonborg addressed the dinner respectively, speaking positively of China-Sweden cooperation in economy, trade and other fields, expressing hope of deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation and extending congratulations on the successful visit of President Hu.

State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan was also present at the dinner.

Prior to the dinner, Hu and his wife Liu Yongqing cordially bid farewell in the royal palace to Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia.