Prime Minister Hawke, distinguished guests and friends, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

Today we gathered here in this beautiful city of Guangzhou, holding the international cooperation conference between the Asian-Pacific presidents and General Governors and mayors of China in 2007. I, as the mayor of Guangzhou, am deeply honored and proud that such a grand and important international conference being held in Guangzhou. On behalf of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, please allow me to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt congratulations on the convening of the conference, and warm welcome to our friends from all over the world.

Nowadays, acceleration of economic globalization and regional economic integration process has created favorable conditions for optimizing the allocation of economic elements of all the countries and regions in the world. Meanwhile, the disputes and frictions among the interests of different regions and countries are increasing day by day. Therefore, countries and regions with the common interests have been taking a partnership and forming a regional competition union.

Using complementary advantages to promote the continuous economic growth of one country or a certain region is an inevitable choice of adapting to the development of the economic globalization. With several most dynamic economies within its territory, the Asian-Pacific region plays a significant role in the process of economic globalization. All the parties in Asian-Pacific region should strengthen mutual exchanges and communications to enhance cooperation, jointly promote economic prosperity and sustainable development of the Asian-Pacific region and even the whole world.

At present, confronting with the complicated international economic climate, many far-sighted persons are concerned about how to establish long-term ties and effective mechanism to push forward the process of globalization with balance, mutual benefit, win-win method, and to create a harmonious world of common prosperity. It is also the theme of the meeting.

Aiming at harmonious integration of the global economy, we have invited a number of elites from various sectors of many countries of the Asian-Pacific region to discuss and exchange their opinions about emerging hotspot issues on international cooperation, such as the headquarters economy, service outsourcing, and sustainable development in various forms of meetings, as well as talks and activities. The meeting can be regarded as an evaluation of the present and a plan for the future. What can be sure is that it will have a profound impact on the future economic development of the Asian-Pacific region and the whole world.