Keynote Speech: 2006 World Leisure Forum
Wu Yi
Vice Premier, State Council of China
Hangzhou, April 22, 2006
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon! I am very pleased to be with you in Hangzhou for the World Leisure Expo and the World Leisure Forum. Up in the heaven is the paradise, down on earth are Suzhou and Hangzhou, we appreciate that the World Leisure Organization had the vision to choose Hangzhou as the host city for the World Leisure Expo four years ago. The Expo’s theme Leisure Changes People’s Lives reflects our common pursuit of civilized and healthy lifestyles and the intrinsic needs of mankind for both material and spiritual fulfillments. On behalf of the Chinese Government and in the name of myself, I would like to offer warm congratulations on the opening of the forum and heartfelt thanks for your presence.
We all know that economic and social advances in certain stage make it possible for people to spend more time on leisure and less time on work. People would begin to have increasingly diversified needs for leisure. To satisfy those needs and develop leisure-related industries for better life is a proposition that requires serious research. I believe that developed or under-developed countries, government or non-governmental organizations, enterprises, academic associations, all should be creative thinkers in exploring workable measures to bring leisure to the majority of our people and advocate for civilized and healthy lifestyles.
Dear friends, the Opening and Reform has changed the destiny of China and helped to improve our people’s life. During the decades from 1978 to 2005, the average annual growth rate of China’s national economy was 9.6%, and social advances were obvious and fast. For year 2005, China’s GDP reached 2,200 billion US dollars and GDP per capita stood at 1,700 US dollars. In the following decades, China will continue to witness strategic opportunities for development and growth. One of the key objectives of the 11th Five-Year Plan is to double the GDP per capita by 2010 without compromising the economic restructuring and efficiency. In this context, it is foreseeable that our people’s life will continue to improve and improved life will lead to increased leisure consumption. Therefore, a solid foundation is already in place for the development of leisure-related industries in China.
It remains a primary priority on Chinese government’s working agenda to make our people live better lives and satisfy their needs for material and cultural fulfillments. Premier Wen Jiabao stressed in this year’s government report that: “service industries such as tourism, health-building sports and cultural undertakings should require positive development to upgrade people’s consumption structure.” This is not only part of our effort to increase our domestic demand, restructure our economy and change modes of economic growth, but more importantly, spells out our concrete measures to satisfy the increasingly diversified consumption needs of our people. We still value hard work and the Chinese tradition of frugality, but at the same time, we encourage our people to spend their earnings from hard work on civilized and healthy leisure for holistic life fulfillment.
In recent years, leisure-related industries in China have assumed strong momentum for growth. They are playing an increasingly important role in improving leisure services and quality of life. Next, I would like to elaborate on the three industries that are most typical of leisure business.
Firstly, tourism. During the first five years of the new century, China has completed its transition from a tourism resource-rich nation to a major tourist destination. In today’s China, pleasure travel is a popular vogue that is affordable to increasingly more people. I saw urban residents rush to the One-thousand-islet Lake to view the fish catching by colossal nets. I saw people relax and return to nature at the Mei Jia Wu Village on the fringe of Hangzhou. By contrast, we also often see groups of farmers from rural areas tour in cities. China’s tourism industries are assuming an even more important role in the national economy. In 2005, China’s revenue from tourism reached 768.6 billion RMB yuan. Throughout the year, there were about 1.2 billion person times of pleasure travels. In the same year, the country received 120 million overseas visitors, among which 47 million made night stops. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism amounted to 29.3 billion US dollars. More and more overseas visitors have tasted China’s natural scenery, cultural heritage and hospitality services. In return, with 31 million person times of overseas travel, China is Asia’s leading country that has the largest number of outgoing visitors to other countries around the world. We are all determined to build China into a solid tourist destination, as 24 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities) have already prioritized tourism as their major industries.
Secondly, cultural undertakings. Along with the deepening of the reform on the cultural system, China’s cultural undertakings have also assumed strong momentum for continued growth. Cultural products and services are being provided in a more flexible way. By the end of last year, China had a total of 2,500 performing troupes, 7,000 cultural offices, public libraries and museums. People are pampered by a huge variety of performances, exhibitions and cultural events and can well entertain themselves by singing and dancing in large numbers of karaoke parlors and dancing spots. China has 273 radio networks and 302 TV networks whose population coverage reach 94.5% and 95.8% respectively. While the country has over 100 thousand cyber cafes, there are 110 million Internet subscribers. Last year, China produced a total of 300 films, published 40.4 billion copies of papers, 2.7 billion magazines, 6.4 billion books and numberless audio and visual products. A lot of enterprises engaged in cultural business are growing stronger and have begun to look for business expansion outside China.
Thirdly, the sports that include competitive sports, popular sports, heath-building services and sports equipment and accessories. Consumption on sports in China sees a shift from welfare expenses to individual and family’s buying of products and services. As teenagers and well-paid professionals used to be the dominant group of consumers on sports, sports services and products today are more accessible to people from other age groups and strata. Non-predictable consumption patterns now are replaced by regularity. These fascinating changes help to stimulate the further development of sports-related service industries as well as the manufacturing industries of sports equipment and products.
Distinguished guests, looking ahead, China is marching into its golden age of development and growth. We are confident that we can build a well-to-do society by 2010 and achieve basic modernization by the middle of the current century. It can be predicted then that over the long course of advance and growth, leisure-related industries in China shall also gain greater development. One direct result of this is improved life of our people. We will propose and implement series of important measures to pursue both the speed and efficiency of development that is in the best interest of our people’s leisure life.
The development we keep referring to is the growth and advance as defined by the Scientific Outlook on Development. Scientific by nature, this outlook on development is the paramount guideline for our work. It lays emphasis on quality, efficiency, harmony between social and economic advances, harmony between man and nature, balance among regions and reduced gap between urban and rural areas. It calls for technological advances and independent innovation. The Scientific Outlook on Development steers our development in a more holistic, coordinated and sustainable way, which shall materialize as guarantee for increased income for varied leisure life.
Secondly, the development is the growth and advance as a result of the increased domestic demands. We will continue to improve our people’s consumption structure and facilitate the pull of consumption on economic growth; by the campaign of building socialist new rural areas, we will create favorable conditions for rural residents to consume more; by implementing the Strategies of the Northeast Revival, the West Development and the Central Rise, we will explore effective means to stimulate demands within these under-developed regions. These state policies will greatly increase the demands in the above-mentioned regions, which will inherently prompt the development of local leisure-related industries and people’s increased consumption on leisure.
Thirdly, the development we advocate is regulated by market mechanism. We will continue to carry out reforms so as to acquire a socialist market economy. We will give full play to the basic role of market mechanism in allocating resources. In the case of leisure business, good market mechanism shall help to assign needed factors of production to leisure-related industries for development and growth. In particular, the speeding up of the reforms in service industries and cultural undertakings will effectively lend force to the development of related industries such as entertainment, Internet gaming and TV broadcast.
Fourthly, the development we uphold is harmonious development. We are committed to building a socialist harmonious society, which features the fusion of the efficiency of market economy and the equality characteristic of socialism. The fundamental goal is to bring the benefits of our reforms to all. So leisure is not the privilege of the select few, but rather the common good for all. Only this way, the development of leisure-related industries can gain more opportunities and potentials.
Last but not least, the development we endorse is peaceful and open development. China’s rapid growth on its own presents new opportunities for other nations around the world. In the future, while striving to satisfy our people’s needs in leisure life and develop leisure-related industries, China will enhance its communication and cooperation with the rest of the world. The World Leisure Forum readily provides such a good platform for the needed dialogue and cooperation.
I would like to conclude by suggesting you to take the opportunity to explore and experience the leisure life of the people of Zhejiang, and especially Hangzhou. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised and enlightened.
Finally, I wish the World Leisure Expo and the Forum a huge success.
Thank you!
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