The Hon. Ministers and Members of Parliament,

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests,

Fellow Chinese, and

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you to join us tonight in celebrating the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Looking back on the course China has traversed over the past 53 years, we are really proud of the progress made by our motherland. It has developed from a semi-colonial, semi-feudal, poor and backward nation into a prosperous and independent socialist country.

The modernization drive characterized by country's reform and opening-up during the past 23 years in particular has made China the 6th largest economy in the world in terms of the total economic scale with an annual average growth rate of 9.4 percent, much higher than the world's average. Last year, China's GDP topped 1.15 trillion US dollars, tripling that of 1990.

This year, our economy continues to maintain a sound momentum of growth in spite of many uncertainties in the current world economic environment. Statistics show that the country's GDP for the first half of this year increased by 7.8 percent and the trade volume by 12.3 percent. And by the end of July our foreign exchange reserve had gone up to 245.6 billion US dollars, compared with 5.55 billion only in 1989, ranking the second in the world.

China's accession to WTO has created a more favorable environment for international business. Now more than 400 multinationals from the world's top 500 have branched into China, and for 9 years running, China has led developing countries in attracting overseas direct investment.

As a result of big strides in the country's economic performance, living standard of people has kept improving. This year finds the per capita disposable income for urban residents growing by 8.5 percent and the per capita net income for farmers growing by 4.2 percent in real terms.

The smooth implementation of the formula of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong and Macao has further enhanced the confidence of the Chinese people throughout the world in the country's complete reunification. Our policy of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" has paved the way for the solution to the Taiwan question. Days will come when Taiwan, a province of China returns to the bosom of the motherland.

Our pursuance of the independent foreign policy of peace based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence has won widespread support from the international community including Papua New Guinea.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China and Papua New Guinea are two great nations along the Pacific Rim. We have enjoyed 26 years of warm relations between our two countries since October 1976 when both sides first opened the door to each other to embrace more fruitful and extensive cooperation and exchanges. PNG has become one of the most important cooperative partners of China in the South Pacific Region. Thanks to the efforts by those either within or without governments of both countries, China and PNG have developed a multi-faceted relationship in the political, economic, trade, health, military, cultural and educational fields.

I can assure our PNG friends that China will remain a reliable development partner to Papua New Guinea forever, and I have every reason to believe that the concerted efforts by both sides will be rewarded by a stronger and more fruitful relationship in the years ahead.

Thank you.