Mme. Chairperson,

Item 55 covers a wide spectrum of elements, and the Chinese delegation would like to focus on (a), (c) and (d).

At present, economic globalization is becoming increasingly extensive characterized by more open market, deeper international division of labor, and faster financial, technical and personnel flow. State-to-state political and economic links are closer with interwoven national interests, producing impacts and constraints on each other and offering new opportunities for national economic development and international cooperation.

At the same time, the gap between the North and the South continues to widen with increased adjustments among interests and conflicts of different parties. Problems of one region often spread to other regions. Such global issues as increasing terrorism and infectious diseases, and deteriorating environment have become more prominent. The developing countries, as the weakest link in the process of economic globalization, are faced with special risks and difficulties.

How to seize the opportunities brought about by economic globalization, how to appropriately respond to the challenges, and how to steer economic globalization to healthy development and enable all countries to enjoy the benefits have become major and urgent issues that require in-depth thinking of the international community. The Chinese delegation wishes to share with you the following views:

1. Globalization should be based on universal participation. Globalization has brought with both more opportunities and more risks and entailed profound adjustments. How to steer the process of globalization bears on stability and development of the world and is closely linked with the interests of all countries. Whether it is rule formulation, risk prevention or conflict solution, it is essential to have the participation of all parties. The international multilateral mechanism with the United Nations at its core is the best place to allow all countries to participate in world affairs on an equal footing. Countries should make joint efforts so that the UN can play a leading role in international development cooperation, promote coherence among different international agencies, formulate rules and resolve differences and conflicts through multilateral dialogue and consultation, and conduct international and regional cooperation, so as to bring benefits of globalization to people of all countries.

2. Globalization should aim at common development. Economic globalization is based on market; it widens the gap while encouraging the competition. In the world today when countries are increasingly interdependent, all-round and balanced development is in the interests of all sides. The international community should promote a fairer and more democratic world financial, monetary and trade system. We should resume as early as possible the Doha round of talks with development as its theme, and oppose trade protectionism. We should focus on poverty eradication, financing for development and capacity building, and enhance the realization of the MDGs at the global level, thus achieving in its true sense a win-win situation of sharing and common prosperity.

3. Globalization should maintain diversity of the world. Globalization has spread some concepts around the world, but it is impossible for the world to become monolithic. In the world today, it is difference that leads to complementarity, and it is diversity that creates vitality. We should therefore respect the diversity, respect the development road chosen by countries independently, enhance exchange among different cultures and civilizations, and make common progress.

4. Globalization should be based on innovation of science and technology. The report of the Secretary-General has emphasized the important role of innovation of science and technology in promoting development. China is in total agreement with this view. To apply the advanced science and technology is essential for faster speed and higher quality of development. It will enable the less developed countries to achieve leapfrog development. Disseminating and sharing advanced knowledge of science and technology and building innovation-driven society should become an important part of globalization process. The system of intellectual property rights should be the tool of promoting technical innovation and dissemination of advanced knowledge of science and technology, and not the shackle of impeding the sharing of such knowledge.

Mme, Chairperson,

Since the reform and opening up, China has obtained sustained and rapid growth. One of the reasons is that China has found a development road which links closely China's own development with the globalization process. This is a road that integrates domestic development with opening up. It is a road based on reform and innovation, international cooperation, mutual benefit and benefit sharing. Facts have proved that by actively participating in the process of economic globalization, China has not only speeded up its own economic development and improved the life of 1.3 billion Chinese people, but also enhanced the economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole. We are willing to make joint efforts with others, promote economic globalization based on win-win and common prosperity, and bring benefits to the entire mankind.

Mme. Chairperson,

Culture is the soul of a country and its people. It can offer powerful spiritual support to comprehensive and coordinated economic and social development. Culture also forms an important part of economic and social development. Cultural, economic and political sectors are closely interwoven. Culture is also increasingly linked with science and technology. Its status and role are more essential in international competition and cooperation, forming an organic part of the entire development strategy.

The rapid progress of economic globalization and science and technology, especially the internet technology, has led to more frequent dialogue and exchange among different cultures and created a new platform where world cultures can merge and culture and development can promote each other. But at the same time, we believe that due to historical and realistic reasons, many splendid cultures are yet to attract full attention and their potentials are yet to be fully tapped. Especially the rich cultural heritage of many developing countries is still waiting to be shown to the world. Another issue that requires our attention is that the cultural product trade is yet to become a two-way interaction. Under such circumstances, it is of great relevance for the United Nations to discuss the issue of culture and development. We hope that through dialogue, we will be able to find new ways of mutual promotion between culture and development, create an enabling environment for cultural exchange among countries, and establish a world of diversified culture, open exchange, and harmonious co-existence.

Mme. Chairperson,

Corruption has become a common enemy of mankind. It directly harms national economic development and social stability, challenges social justice, and damages social morale. The birth of the UN Convention Against Corruption has greatly bolstered the efforts to combat corruption. China ratified the convention on October 27, 2005 and became a signatory state. In recent years, guided by the principle of combining punitive and preventive measures and focusing on prevention, China has made major efforts to build anti-corruption structure and issued the Implementation Program on Establishing Comprehensive System for Punishing and Preventing Corruption with Equal Emphasis on Education, Institution and Supervision. This has served as a comprehensive, systematic and scientific action plan against corruption. We have also established domestic coordinating mechanism for international anti-corruption cooperation. We have made earnest efforts in China's legal areas related to the UN Convention Against Corruption.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to international anti-corruption cooperation. We hold that the signatories should act on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty, equality and mutual benefit, carry out effective international cooperation in legal assistance, extradition, tracking and returning the assets of illicit origin, and exchange information on preventing and tracking corruption crimes and transferring assets. At the same time, the international community should give priority to helping developing countries in anti-corruption capacity building and technical support.

Over the years, corruption crimes have become increasingly organized, diversified and transnational. In order to avoid legal punishment, it has become a common practice for corrupted people to flee to foreign countries and transfer their illicit assets abroad. This has posed a major obstacle for the efforts to punish corruption and track the illicit assets. In this regard, the developing countries are the biggest victims. The UN Convention Against Corruption has offered legal basis for signatories to track assets of illicit origin. However, this cannot be achieved by one country single-handedly. China believes that relevant signatories should reinforce anti-corruption cooperation, jointly explore and establish effective international coordination mechanism, and offer legal assistance to each other and cooperate in the field of law enforcement, so as to bring corrupted people to justice and return the transferred illicit assets to the countries of origin at an early date. We also hope that the international community will further improve the relevant legal system.

Thank you, Mme. Chairperson.