Ambassadors talk about Li's speech

 

Stanley Loh, ambassador of Singapore

Premier Li has clearly articulated the Chinese leadership's determination to carry out important and comprehensive economic, social and governmental administrative reforms. It is evident from the report that China places high priority on seeking continued development while maintaining overall stability.

In addition to the usual focus on economic development, this year's report paid considerable attention to addressing livelihood issues, such as social security, education, public health, housing, food safety and environmental pollution. This shows that the Chinese leadership is keenly aware of the issues of interest to the Chinese people and cares about their well-being. Over the past year, the new Chinese leadership has implemented some measures to simplify administrative procedures, enlarge the private sector's role in the Chinese economy, fight corruption and strengthen engagement with neighboring countries.

As highlighted by Premier Li, these are important areas that the Chinese leadership will continue to work on in the years ahead.

Marco Vinicio Ruiz, ambassador of Costa Rica

We came to see how they will carry out the reform. It seems to me Premier Li was very, very keen on telling about the reform. We are pleased that he is really going to deepen the international ties of China, especially the economic side, opening up the economy for foreign investment, facilitating procedures for small and medium business. The reform is based on market forces, which is good news for the international community. On the other hand, they are going to put a lot of effort into improving the standard of living of Chinese. There was a lot of information on pension funds, how to increase income, how to create jobs, especially for young people. I am very pleased with what I heard. We hope they are going to succeed in doing that. Premier Li is more detailed. His reform efforts are focused on the economy.

 

Guy Saint-Jacques, ambassador of Canada

The speech was a reaffirmation of the direction that was announced last year. I think the leadership has a good assessment of the problems, particularly in the economic area, and how to resolve them. I wish them every success because if China is successful, the rest of the world will also benefit. I would have expected a little more emphasis on the notion of ecological civilization because China is facing major pollution problems; hopefully we will see more details later on how the government is going to address this.

Obviously, there are some important messages about China's place in the world, how China sees itself as a global maritime power and the importance it attaches to the question of sovereignty.

The most urgent priority is to move the economy toward higher quality growth. The reforms should provide more room for the private sector because it is the private sector that is best placed to lead in terms of innovation and job creation.

The new leadership seems to be more open. Compared with last year's report, there is more transparency in this year's and more emphasis was placed on governance, including what is expected from public officials in terms of proper behavior and the fight against corruption. This is in line with what President Xi Jinping has been advocating.

Kwon Young-se, ambassador of ROK

The part that impressed me most is when Premier Li Keqiang frankly admitted in the work report that the Chinese government faced more challenges than expected in the last year and that there will still be many difficulties to overcome. Such frankness shows that the Chinese government is getting more transparent, which I think will help to gain more public support for its work in the future.

The silent tribute paid to the victims of the Kunming attack on Saturday before the Government Work Report also moved me very much, and from it, I felt the Chinese people's deep respect and love for the lives lost.

As said in Li's work report, the Chinese government managed to reach the main goals of economical and social development in the process of opening up and reform and modernization despite the many difficulties it faced.

I have to say this is an extraordinary achievement, which I believe will lay an important foundation for the realization of the “Chinese Dream” proposed by President Xi Jinping.

I especially noticed the part in Li's report when he said, “China is playing a constructive role in resolving major global and regional affairs and controversial issues”.

Resolving the DPRK's nuclear issue and realizing peace and stabilization on the Korean Peninsula are the most important regional issues for both China and the Republic of Korea. On behalf of the ROK's government, we hope to maintain active cooperation with China, a good neighbor of ours and a major power. We are also looking forward to China's role in this issue.

Luis Schmidt Montes, ambassador of Chile

It was very impressive because the premier talked about the nation's needs. It's very important to maintain the economy, the growing. It is a big topic, because all of the developing nations have great problems with growing. He also spoke on the issue of corruption and the issue of maintaining more facilities for growing as well as opening up the economy to attract more investment and continue the increase of the labor force. This is very good news for foreign embassies in China. In our case, Chile has become China's second-largest trading partner in Latin America. Every day I have said, if China is good, Chile is better.

Frederick M. M. Shava, ambassador of Zimbabwe

This is my seventh time listening to Chinese government reports, and I was particularly impressed by the leadership's continued commitment to economic reform and its focus on the improvement of its people's lives. I have no doubt that given this level of commitment, realizing the great Chinese dream can only be a matter of time. My country, Zimbabwe, can benefit a lot from the experiences of this great nation.