SHF2012丨Long Yongtu

Distinguishedguests, ladies and gentlemen:

It’smy great pleasure to join you at Shanghai Forum hosted by Fudan University. As faras I can remember, six or seven years ago, South Korea SK Group decided tosponsor Beijing University and Fudan University to organize a forum respectively.As a result, we have Beijing Forum in Beijing, which focuses on politicalissues, and Shanghai Forum in Shanghai, which focuses on economic issues. Ionce expressed my doubt to the leaders of Fudan University whether it is feasiblefor a university to host what is called Shanghai Forum. How can a universitycall its forum Shanghai Forum? It turns out that Fudan University has done amagnificent job. Today, Han Zheng, mayor of Shanghai, came here in person,which justifies your calling the forum Shanghai Forum. Above all, I shouldcongratulate Fudan University on holding such a good international forum.

Mytopic today is about economic restructuring. The theme of this forum is “EconomicGlobalization and the Choice of Asia: Strategies for 2011-2020”. In addition toeconomic strategy, we can also discuss energy strategy, population strategy, sustainabledevelopment strategy for the next ten years. But I think economic restructuringis at the very core of Asia’s strategies for the next decade. It is also at thecore of China’s strategy for the next decade. In the past decade, like manyemerging economies in Asia, China has achieved significant economic process. Meanwhileit is faced with formidable challenges, that is, how to realize economicrestructuring. The term economic restructuring is rich in meaning and refers toa variety of changes. These changes can be summarized into the followingaspects: economic growth becomes more reliant on improved quality than increasedquantity; economic structure is adjusted in such a way that instead of being predominatedby manufacturing industry it enables manufacturing industry, services andmodern agriculture to achieve mutual development; economic growth, which usedbe mainly derived from investment and export, is increasingly driven byinvestment, export and domestic demand, with domestic demand as the leadingforce. Besides, mutual development of large, medium, and small-sized enterprisesin diverse sectors of economy rather than development of large state-ownedenterprises alone is to be encouraged. Thus China’s economic restructuring doesinvolve many issues. However, the core change, in my view, is the change oftarget from economic growth to people’s development, which constitutes thecentral concern of China’s economic restructuring.

In this light,I come up with two standards by which we can decide whether China’s economicrestructuring is successful or not. One is whether it enables people to live ahappier and more vigorous life. The other is whether it makes society morestable and more harmonious. In essence, the success of China’s economicrestructuring depends on improvement of people’s livelihood and maintenance of socialstability and harmony. Once we realize these two aims, it means we have successfullycompleted economic restructuring. In other words, the overall objective isshifted from economic growth to human development.

The reason why I come to this conclusion can be dated back to 2009when the economy of China exceeded that of Japan for the first time and becamethe second largest economy in the world. Many economists, government officialsand common people in China were all discussing when China would exceed U.S. in economicaggregate and become the largest economy. On the whole, it’s merely a matter oftime for China to exceed U.S. and become the world’s top economy. While we werediscussing when China will take over U.S., I read an article in an Australiannewspaper. It directed three questions at China: when will you make elites inmost countries in the world willing to send their children to study in Chinarather than in U.S. and Europe; when will you make most people in the world,especially young people, more inclined to see Chinese films, listen to Chinesemusic and read Chinese books; when will you make consumers in the world chooseto use more products of Chinese brand rather than American or European brand?These three questions put a damper on our heated discussion as to whether we cansurpass U.S. in economic output and reduces the discussion to sheermeaninglessness. We admit that these three questions did point out Achilles'heel in China’s economic development, the question as to when China’s softpower will correspond to its hard power and China establishes itself as aninfluential economy in the world.

Tosolve this question, I think it is crucial to strengthen people’s developmentin China and turns the goal of Chinese economy from economic growth to humandevelopment. To make such a transition, heated discussions are held about theway to improve China’s soft power of culture. I suggest that we make efforts inthe following three aspects.

First of all,we’ll see whether there can be further development in cultural entities, orcarriers of culture. China has recently paid much attention to culturalindustries, or rather, material forms of Chinese culture. Our concern is whetherwe can produce better films, music and books that are well received in otherparts of the world, and whether our education can earn admiration and respectfrom elites worldwide so that more and more of them will send their children tostudy in China. To enhance soft power of Chinese culture, China must devotemajor efforts to development of cultural industries and educational industries.These are what I call cultural entities, or carriers of culture.

Secondly, we’lllook at system culture in China’s economic development, which is mainlyconcerned with establishment and improvement of market economy in China. Wehave been undertaking economic restructuring for many years, aiming at a moremarket-driven economy. Now we are more and more aware that there is still along way to go before we set up the system culture for a market-driven economy.China falls a long way short of having market players as entities of resourcesallocation. The state is gaining more control over allocation of resources likeland and money among other things. The state rather than the market still dominatesallocation of these resources. Besides, SOEs still monopolize many areas, thusgreatly restricting economic development of enterprises of other forms ofownership. Moreover, the influence of government’s administrative approvalsshows the tendency to increases rather than decreasing over the past few years.This reminds me that the weakest point in our ten-year negotiation about ourentry to WTO is how to reduce the power of government in economic operation. Wehave made some achievements, but these achievements are evaporating. During thetransitional process of China’s economic development mode, it is an enormouslybig challenge to establish Chinese socialist economic system. To place cultureat the center of our economic restructuring, a historic task is to build up asystem culture that is suited for socialist market economy. It’s certain that socialistmarket economy within the legal system must be based on credit system, and weare more concerned with social problems in relation to credit system. Therefore,there is much to be done before we establish the culture of system.

Thirdly,we’ll come to the biggest challenge regarding establishment of valuescompatible with economic restructuring. I can’t agree more with the valuesissue mentioned by Mr. Tae-Won Chey, which in his opinion is at the very coreof economic restructuring. But for a number of cultivated people in support ofChina’s economic development, China’s economy would not be able to gainsustainable progress. In this sense, one of the most important objectives ofour economic restructuring is to produce a number of highly cultured people.More and more talented people do graduate from colleges like Fudan University.But they are far from being highly cultured people. A cultured person hassomething more than a college diploma such as a master’s or doctor’s degree. A culturedperson must possess core values and should make efforts in the following three areas:

Firstlyone should learn the proper way to treat oneself. A cultured person must have astrong sense of self-confidence, self-respect, self-discipline and self-improvement.Similarly, to a nationality or a country, the people must have a strong senseof self-confidence, self-respect, self-discipline and self-improvement.

Secondlyone should learn the proper way to treat other people. To be specific, oneshould treat other people with modesty, tolerance and love. By the same token,a nationality or a country should adopt a modest, tolerant, friendly andgenerous attitude towards surrounding nationalities or countries and all the nationalitiesor countries in the world.

Thirdly,one should learn the proper way to treat the surrounding environment. We’ll seewhether one undertakes economic and social work in accordance with objectivelaws and market value. We’ll also see whether one complies with the naturerather than confronting the nature and whether one cares about the globalenvironment the same way one cares about one’s natural environment.    

What I want to emphasizeis that the most essential part of developing soft power of culture is tocultivate a number of highly cultured people. Only with these people can thevalues of Chinese nation earn others’ respect. If we Chinese nation has astrong sense of self-respect, self-confidence and self-improvement, adopts afriendly, modest, tolerant and generous attitude towards other nations, and takescare to protect the whole environment, China’s soft power of culture will begreatly improved. To establish the legal system for Chinese socialist market economy,we must work vigorously to develop our cultural industries and educationalindustries. That’s for sure. But the crux of the problem is to produce a numberof people with respectable values. This is what I think Shanghai Forum shouldfocus. That’s why Mr. Tae-Won Chey and other sensible people from Korea expecta university to host this forum. The fundamental concern of a university ishuman development. To me, if Shanghai Forum adheres to its core belief in people’svalue, people’s cultivation and people’s development, Shanghai Forum can setitself apart from other forums and demonstrate its unique power and value inits competition and cooperation with the world’s best forums like the WorldEconomic Forum Davos and Boao Forum for Asia. That’s why I expect the mostprestigious university in Shanghai to host this forum and establish its ownbrand. Its focus should be on people’s development, which can’t do withouteconomic and social development and the overall economic relationship,including development in international political, economic and diplomaticrelationships. It is in this extensive context that we discuss and explore theissue of people’s development. Once the issue of people’s development is smoothedout, the issue of international relationships is half solved. If countries andpeople in every country achieve mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutualunderstanding, and show generosity and affection to each other, internationalrelationships, even the most difficult ones can be properly settled. If such avalue is absent, and all the international relationships are built on the basisof sheer interest or on the basis of geopolitical or geo-economic factors, a trulysustainable relationship can hardly be established. As far as I am concerned, Icherish great expectations for Shanghai Forum. I hope Shanghai Forum will liveup to what people expect of a forum hosted by one of the world’s most famousuniversity and distinguish itself in thousands of forums of its kind around theglobe, and I believe by giving full play to its fundamental brand concept,Shanghai Forum will become better and better.

In conclusion,I wish Shanghai Forum every success. Thank you.