驻南非大使林松添：中国愿与世界分享庞大的市场机遇
Chinese Ambassador Lin Songtian: China is Ready to Share Its Enormous Market Opportunities with the World
11月5日至10日，首届中国国际进口博览会将在上海举行。X1以及约172个国家和地区的政要、工商界人士及有关国际组织负责人将应邀与会。3600多家企业参展，其中包括200多家世界500强和行业龙头企业，首次进入中国的新产品将达5000多种。南非、俄罗斯、巴西、埃及、印尼、英国、德国等12个主宾国将设立专门的国家馆。超过40多万名境内外采购商到会洽谈采购。
On 5-10 November, the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held in Shanghai. X1 and leaders from governments, businesses, and international organizations from around 172 countries and regions will attend. Over 3,600 businesses from the world will be represented, of which over 200 are Fortune 500 companies. More than 5,000 new types of products will enter the Chinese market for the first time. 12 “Guests of Honor”, including South Africa, Russia, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, UK, and Germany have set up dedicated national pavillions in the Expo. Over 400,000 purchasers from China and overseas will hold discussions and seek buisiness opportunities.
此次博览会是迄今为止世界上第一个以进口产品和进口贸易为主题的国家级博览会，是国际贸易发展史上的一大创举，是中国坚定支持贸易自由化和经济全球化、主动向世界开放市场的重大举措，也是中国同世界致力于合作共赢、共同发展的具体行动。
As a pioneering step in the history of international trade, the CIIE is the world’s first ever national import expo. It is a major measure and concrete action of China to proactively open its market, firmly support trade liberalization and economic globalization, and to pursue win-win cooperation for common development with the world.
今年是中国改革开放四十周年。40年来，中国国内生产总值年均增长约9.5%，对外贸易额年均增长14.5%，国内生产总值增长了30多倍，创造了人类教科书里从未有过的发展奇迹，让13亿中国人民生活从物资短缺走向小康，7亿多贫困人口成功脱贫，4亿多人口步入中等收入群体，从根本上满足了中国人民就业、居住、温饱、医疗和教育等基本人权需求，为世界人权事业树立了典范。今天，中国已成为全球第二大经济体。中国连续多年对世界经济增长贡献率超过30%,多年保持美国、俄罗斯、日本、欧洲、南非等世界100多个主要国家最大贸易伙伴地位，是促进世界经济发展当之无愧的主要引擎。
This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. Over the past 40 years, China has achieved over 30 times of GDP growth, averaging an annual growth rate of 9.5%. China’s Foreign trade volume has been growing at 14.5% per year. The life of the nearly 1.4 billion Chinese people has been transformed from austerity to moderate prosperity, lifting over 700 million out of poverty, and enabling over 400 million to successfully become the middle class-income population. China has created a development miracle never happened before in the textbook of human history. Through reform and opening up, China has fundamentally ensure the basic human rights to work, to housing, to food, to hospital, and to school for its 1.4 billion population, making a great example for the world in promoting the great cause of human rights. Today, as the world’s second largest economy and as the main engine for the world economy, China has for many years maintained over 30% contribution to world economic growth, and has for many years remained the largest trading partner of over 100 countries across the world, including the United States, Russia, Japan, South Africa, and European countries.
中国是改革开放的受益者，也当然是改革开放和开放型世界经济的坚定拥护者、支持者。中国关税总水平已由加入世贸组织时的15.3%降至9.8%，实际的贸易加权平均税率只有4.4%，实现了对世贸组织所有成员的承诺。未来，还有更多进口商品关税将下调。2017年，中国对全球进出口贸易总额的贡献率高达10.2%和12.8%，分别位居世界第二和第一位。社会消费品零售总额近达6万亿美元，成为世界第二大消费市场。中国居民一年在境外购物消费大约2000亿美元，购买大量高档商品、日用消费品。
As a beneficiary of reform and opening up, China is also surely a staunch supporter of an open world economy, and of further reform and opening up. Since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000, China’s overall tariff has been reduced from 15.3% to 9.8%, and according to the WTO, China's weighted tariff had fallen to 4.4%, which means that China has fully fulfilled its commitment to all WTO members. Moving forward, China has committed to continuing tariff reduction to more imported goods. In 2017, China’s contribution to global import and export trade registered 10.2% and 12.8% respectively, ranking the second and the first place globally. In the same year, China’s consumer goods retail sales recorded close to 6 trillion US dollars, making the world’s second largest consumer market. On average, Chinese citizens spend about 200 billion US dollars yearly abroad on consumer goods, purchasing large amounts of high-end consumer goods.
中国坚持扩大开放，愿同世界分享快速发展的巨大机遇，共享繁荣。中国拥有近14亿人广阔市场和世界上人口最多的中等收入群体，已成为当今世界第二大进口国和消费国。预计未来15年，中国进口的商品和服务将分别超过30万亿美元和10万亿美元，为世界各国企业生产和产品提供中国巨大市场。
China is firmly committed to reform and opening up and is willing to share with the world its huge and rapidly growing business opportunities, so as to achieve common prosperity. With its nearly 1.4 billion population and the largest middle-income population, China has already become the world’s second largest importer and consumer market. It is estimated that in the next 15 years, China’s goods imports will exceed 30 trillion US dollars, while services imports will exceed 10 trillion US dollars, offering a tremendous market for world business production and exports.
当前，有的国家为了眼前一己私利，在全球范围内挑起贸易保护主义，肆意破坏基于规则的国际自由贸易体系，肆意挥舞关税大棒，破坏世界自由贸易秩序，遭到全世界人民的坚决反对。我们坚信，贸易战不可取，因为不会有赢家。经济霸权主义更要不得，因为这将损害国际社会共同利益，最终也将搬起石头砸自己的脚。
Today, certain country, in order to pursue its short-sighted selfish interest, has gone out of its way to launch protectionist attacks around the world, willfully resorting to the weapons of tariff, and recklessly sabotaging the rule-based international free trade regime. These moves have been met with the strongest opposition and condemnation by the peoples of the world. We firmly believe that, a trade war should be rejected, because there will be no winner. Economic hegemony is even more objectionable, as it will undermine the collective interests of the international community; those who pursue this course will only end up hurting themselves.
此时，中国率先举行国际进口博览会意义重大，既充分表明中国致力于合作共赢、共同发展的新理念，以实际行动回击贸易保护主义；又向全世界展现中国坚定不移扩大开放的决心和信心，为各国扩大对华出口提供契机，也为各国彼此之间开展国际贸易、分享合作商机搭建新的平台。
Under such circumstances, it is meaningful and significant for China to take the lead to host this International Import Expo. It will not only show to the world our commitment to win-win cooperation for common development and our determination and resolve for further reform and opening up, but also more importantly, to create fresh opportunities and to set up new platforms for countries around the world to grow their export to China, so as to share business and growth opportunities together.
X1指出，“中国对外开放的大门不会关闭，只会越来越宽”。中国欢迎全世界搭乘中国发展快车，共享中国机遇。中国将继续放宽市场准入，创造更有吸引力的投资环境，加强知识产权保护，持续下调汽车和部分日用消费品进口关税，主动扩大进口。这些具体举措将为外国企业进入中国市场、扩大对华出口、分享中国发展新机遇带来巨大便利。
X1 has made the commitment that, “the door of China’s opening up will not close. It will only open wider." China stands ready to share its development opportunities with the rest of the world. Moving forward, the Chinese government will continue to relax market access, improve investment environment, and strengthen protection of intellectual property rights. We will continue to reduce tariff on automobiles and consumer goods, and take active steps to further expand import. These measures will greatly facilitate market access and export growth, and create new business opportunities for foreign companies to the Chinese market.
中国将始终坚定不移地高举和平、发展、合作、共赢的旗帜，秉持共商共建共享原则，以推进“一带一路”建设和举办国际进口博览会为抓手，共同致力于推动构建相互尊重、公平正义、合作共赢的新型国际关系和人类命运共同体，为世界实现持久和平与共同繁荣做出新的更大贡献。
The Chinese government will firmly hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and win-win, follow the principle to planning together, building together, and sharing together, and leverage the opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative and the International Import Expo, to continue the efforts to promote a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win co-operation and to build a community with a shared future for mankind, so as to make greater contribution to world durable peace and common prosperity.
中国已连续9年成为南非最大的贸易伙伴，南非已连续8年成为中国在非洲的最大贸易伙伴。去年，中南双边贸易额达391.7亿美元，较建交之初增长了26倍多。中国愿同南非优先分享14亿人口的巨大市场，继续采取鼓励举措，主动开放市场，鼓励南非更多产品出口中国。南非已成为对华出口牛肉的首个非洲国家，矿产、水果、红葡萄酒、海产品等优势产品对华出口规模增长迅速。我们真诚欢迎南企业抓住中国进口博览会带来的巨大机遇，推动更多有竞争力的商品进入中国市场，从中南友好互利合作中收获更多成果。
China has for 9 years remained South Africa’s largest trading partner, and South Africa has for 8 years in a row remained China’s biggest trading partner in Africa. In 2017, China-South Africa two-way trade reached 39.17 billion US dollars, an increase of over 26 times since the beginning of diplomatic ties. China is willing to make it a priority to share with South Africa its 1.4 billion population market. We will continue to take active measures to open up the Chinese market and encourage more South African exports to China. South Africa is already the first African country to export beef to China, and its exports of minerals, fruits, wine, and marine products are also growing fast. We look forward to more South African businesses seizing the opportunities of the China International Import Expo to enter the Chinese market, and to harvest more fruitful results from China-South Africa friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.
