Dr. Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, Chairman of CGCC Hong Kong,

Dr Cecilio Pedro, President of FFCCCII,

Mr. Raul Lambino, Chairman of APCU,

The Honorable Secretaries, Governors, senior government officials,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

Good afternoon!

It gives me great pleasure to join you at this Manila Forum for China-Philippine Relations with both old and new friends from the Philippines and from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Today, we are here to discuss the prospects of the Greater Bay Area, an area that you can feel the pulse of China in the new era featuring high-quality development and high-standard opening up.

The Greater Bay Area is a major national strategy planned, deployed, and promoted under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. It’s a new initiative towards all-around opening up in the new era and a new practice to push forward the cause of One Country, Two Systems. In 2023, the Greater Bay Area was further positioned as a strategic pivot in the new development pattern, a demonstration zone for high-quality development, and a leading area for Chinese modernization. Over the past year, the Greater Bay Area’s economic output exceeded 14 trillion yuan, around 2 trillion U.S. dollars. With an area of only 0.6% of China’s land, the GBA generated one-ninth of our economic output. It has surpassed New York and San Francisco Bay Areas to be at the forefront of the world’s four major Bay Areas in terms of economic output, proving itself as a highly promising growth pole of the global economy.

The Greater Bay Area is both a pioneer and a leader in China’s reform and opening-up. More than 40 years ago, the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the policy of reform and opening-up, leading our country towards socialist modernization. Shenzhen and Zhuhai, cities in the Greater Bay Area, were then approved as the first Special Economic Zones. Forty years later, history has once again chosen the Greater Bay Area. Last month, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed the Resolution on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization. The Resolution stated that we will enable regions like the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to better play their roles as engines of high-quality development, and that we will encourage cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in the Greater Bay Area by promoting closer alignment of rules and mechanisms, harnessing the institutional strengths of the One Country, Two Systems policy. This sounded a clarion call for a new round of reform and development in the Greater Bay Area. At the session, it was stated that high-quality development is our primary task in building China into a modern socialist country in all respects, and that opening up is a defining feature of Chinese modernization. We will unswervingly promote high-quality development, of which developing new productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and an important focus. We will develop artificial intelligence, digital economy, green economy and other frontier areas, foster new consumption scenarios, cultivate new momentum in foreign trade, and build the name-brand “Invest in China”, turning China’s large market into a “strong magnetic field” for global innovation. We will unswervingly promote high-standard opening up, aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules and harmonize rules, regulations, management, and standards, and steadily expanding institutional opening up. We will expand the catalog of encouraged industries for foreign investment, deepen the foreign trade structural reform, and further reform the management systems for inward and outward investment. In this new round of reform and development, the Greater Bay Area will undoubtedly become an excellent place for you to experience China’s high-quality development and high-standard opening up.

The Greater Bay Area is a new opportunity for the development of the region and the world. In 2022 alone, trade between the GBA and ASEAN countries reached 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 22.6% of the total foreign trade of the Greater Bay Area. GBA direct investment in ASEAN also reached 17.9 billion U.S. dollars. China’s development is more of an opportunity for the world. In 2023, bilateral trade between China and ASEAN continued to grow and reached 6.41 trillion yuan, with ASEAN remaining China’s number one trading partner for four consecutive years. ASEAN countries have also fully benefited from the cooperation. For example, last year, China-Vietnam bilateral trade reached 229.8 billion U.S. dollars, with Vietnam’s exports to China increased by 4.8%. Their fruit and vegetable exports to China increased by 139%, accounting for 65% of Vietnam’s total fruit and vegetable exports. Durian exports, in particular, amounted to nearly 500 thousand tons, totaling 2.1 billion U.S. dollars. According to IMF, China’s contribution to Asian economic growth has exceeded 50%. When China’s growth rate rises by 1 percentage point, global expansion is boosted by about 0.3 percentage points. In recent years, economic globalization has faced headwinds and counter-currents, with some countries single-mindedly building “exclusive yards with high walls” in an attempt for “decoupling”, the world’s openness index is on a downward trend. However, fueled by new productive forces, the potential of China’s super-large market continues to be unleashed, and our economy maintains a long-term positive trend. This will continue to make the “cake” of economic development bigger, promote openness and cooperation, and bring new development prospects to ASEAN countries and the world at large. This will also inject strong momentum into building an open world economy and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Ladies and gentlemen, the past achievements have been splendid, and led by the ambitious goal of Chinese modernization, a more vibrant Greater Bay Area is to be expected. It is the closest neighbor to the Philippines, with only about 1000 kilometers or just a two-hours flight from the Manila Greater Bay Area in the future. We warmly welcome our friends from the Philippines to the Greater Bay Area, to explore and experience it for yourselves. We also sincerely hope that you may join hands with us, seize the opportunities of the times, and embrace the future characterized by openness, cooperation, and mutual benefit.

To conclude, I wish this Forum a great success! Thank you and mabuhay!