Chinese President Hu Jintao said Monday that with surging economic globalization, China and Asia are quickly becoming a new growth engine for the world while the global boom is also generating more important opportunities for China and Asia.

Hu made the remark in an address delivered at the opening ceremony of the 2005 Fortune Global Forum held in China's capital of Beijing.

"Continued mutually-beneficial economic cooperation and rising interdependence among the world's countries will usher in an even better future for global economy in development," said Chinese President.

The Chinese people have made a major contribution to human progress by creating the splendid Chinese civilization with hard work and ingenuity, said Hu.

President Hu Jintao pledged to the world China will undertake a set of reforms to become a more open, prospering market.

"China will revamp foreign economic management, step up protection of intellectual property rights and work harder to help foreign investors, and create an even better environment for trade and economic co-operation between China and the rest of the world," Hu said during the 15-minute key note speech.

The forum, themed "China and the New Asian Century", is regarded as a flagship event in global business circles. It has brought together about 850 business tycoons and government officials -- a record high in the forum's history.

Hu told delegates that with surging economic globalization, China and Asia are quickly becoming a new growth engine for the world while the global boom is also generating more important opportunities for China and Asia.

The president sketched a rosy picture for China's development in the following 15 years, saying that China will quadruple its year 2000 GDP to approximately US$4,000 billion with a per capita level of some US$3,000 in 2020.

"To realize the goal, we must uphold the scientific approach in achieving economic and social development of the country," he said. "We must put the people first, making the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of people as our point of departure, and endeavour to satisfy their growing material and cultural needs to pursue the comprehensive development," he added.

He said the country will continue to open its market, find new ways of using foreign capital, and improve on legislations and regulations for encouraging and protecting foreign investors.

"All of you are important corporate leaders participating and promoting international economic activities. Many of you and the companies you represent have been vigorously involved for years in pushing economic and technological co-operation with China, and have made significant contribution to China's sustained economic growth and technological upgrading in certain industries," said Hu, adding that the Chinese looks forward to continued expansion of their investment in China.

"As China becomes more developed, its co-operation with other countries and their corporations of various types is bound to increase in scale," Hu said.

The president promised the country will stick to the direction of reform for a socialist market economy and participate more broadly in international economic and technological co-operation, and competition with "wider and heighten dimensions," said the president. This is the third Fortune Global Forum to be held in China, following the 1999 session in Shanghai and 2001 in Hong Kong.

Since 1949, when the New China was proclaimed, and particularly since the implementation of reform and opening-up program pioneered by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China has undergone a profound transformation never seen in the country before. In a short span of 26 years from 1978 to 2004, China's GDP increased from 147.3 billion US dollars to 1.6494 trillion US dollars with an average annual growth rate of 9.4 percent.

Its foreign trade rose from 20.6 billion US dollars to 1.1548 trillion US dollars, averaging an annual growth rate of over 16 percent. China's foreign exchange reserve increased from 167 million US dollars to 609.9 billion US dollars.

The number of rural poor has dwindled from some 250 million to 26 million. The overall national strength of China has increased remarkably and the texture of life of its people improved steadily.

.Source: People's Daily