Mr. Chairman,

First of all, please allow me, on behalf of the Chinese delegation, to congratulate you on your election to the chairmanship of the Sixth Committee at the current session of the General Assembly. I am confident that with your renowned knowledge and outstanding abilities, you will lead the work of our committee to a complete success. Here, I wish also to congratulate other members of the Bureau on their election. The Chinese delegation will as always offer its fullest cooperation to the Bureau.

Mr. Chairman,

The main items deliberated at this annual session of UNCITRAL are forward looking and represent areas in international trade for which harmonization and unification are urgently needed. The fact that this session was attended by participants coming from countries and regions with varying degrees of economic development and different legal regimes and also by those from various international organizations demonstrates the representative and authoritative nature of the work carried out by UNCITRAL. We are pleased to note that as a result of joint efforts by all the participants, the annual session completed its deliberation of all the items on its agenda and achieved consensus on how to deal with these items in the future. The report on the work of the annual session provides a faithful, complete and objective picture of the discussion at the session. The Chinese delegation hereby expresses its appreciation to the Secretariat of UNCITRAL for its customary high efficiency and high quality of its work.

The Chinese government has always been an active participant in the drafting of international trade rules and we signed during the current session of UNCITRAL the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. This Convention will help China's adoption of and compliance with international rules and regulations in the field of e-commerce, hence facilitating international trade and promoting China's e-commerce development.

The Chinese government believes that legal instruments such as conventions and model laws on international trade drafted by UNCITRAL play an important role in promoting the healthy development of international trade. We therefore call upon the General Assembly to continue to provide strong support to UNCITRAL in various aspects. We also hope that member states will continue to deepen their involvement in the work of UNCITRAL and work collectively towards the goal of unification of international trade law and development of international trade.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.