President Hu Jintao positioned China as a leader of the developing world yesterday in an appeal to Asian and African countries to co-operate in the fight for more assistance from developed countries.
Speaking to business leaders in Jakarta last night after arriving in the Indonesian capital for the Asian-African Summit, which starts today, Mr Hu said developing countries should 'strengthen co-ordination' and press developed countries to 'take concrete steps on debt relief and development assistance, with no strings attached'.
'We must co-operate more closely to facilitate the reform of the international economic, trade and financial regime, and improve the trade environment in the interest of narrowing the gap between the North and the South,' Mr Hu said.
Mr Hu said many developing countries were marginalised by globalisation and more co-operation was needed to promote North-South dialogue to provide a level playing field for all countries.
'Economic globalisation has sharpened worldwide economic and technological competition,' the president said. 'New trade barriers, recurring economic and financial crises and a widening North-South gap have placed some Asian and African countries in difficult straits.'
Mr Hu said fostering ties with developing countries was the 'cornerstone' of Beijing's foreign policy and the mainland had taken the initiative in exempting many developing countries from tariffs.