Mr. Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony
Jorge Glas, Vice President of Ecuador, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony
People.com.cn, 8 December, Beijing (reported by Chen Ying) -- The 1st meeting of the Political Parties’ Forum China-CELAC opened on the morning of 8 December in Beijing. The two-day meeting is set to hold discussions on the theme of “Innovation, Development, Cooperation and the Future - Challenges and Measures for China and CELAC Political Parties”, and emphasize five sub-topics, namely China-CELAC cooperation, the development path, political parties in the 21st century, economic development, and poverty reduction.
The meeting is jointly hosted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the PAIS Alliance of Ecuador, which holds the pro tempore presidency of CELAC currently, and is attended by some 60 delegates representing 27 political parties from 26 CELAC countries.
Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony and made a key-note speech. He said that the Communist Party of China always attached great importance to the friendly exchanges with CELAC political parties. As an institutionalized event under the China-CELAC Forum framework, the Meeting of the Political Parties’ Forum China-CELAC is an important step for implementing the important consensus reached by the leaders of our countries, enhancing party-to-party exchanges between the two sides, and providing political guidance and dynamism for China-CELAC comprehensive cooperation, and will build a brand new multilateral platform for conducting the strategic dialogue and sharing development experiences between political parties in China and CELAC countries.
Song added that China is ready to share experiences and opportunities and push forward collaboration with the CELAC countries to create a community of common future and shared interests. Based on political mutual trust, China and CELAC countries would make efforts to speak with a common voice in reforming the international system, innovate the cooperation mode continuously, tap cooperation potentials, strengthen party-to-party exchanges and mutual learning, achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, and promote the development of China-CELAC relations.
Jorge Glas, Vice President and Vice Chairman of the PAIS Alliance of Ecuador, which holds the pro tempore CELAC presidency currently, pointed out in his speech that the political parties are a main force for pushing forward social development, and China-CELAC political party cooperation is of strategic significance. He commented that the advanced governance experience of the CPC has become a role model for the CELAC countries and that the two sides should further enhance cooperation and learn from each other to meet the common challenges in respect of development, poverty reduction and innovation and enable the development results to better benefit the public.
Solís Bolaños, Chairman of the Citizens’ Action Party of Costa Rica, and Sen. Haynesley Benn of Democratic Labor Party of Barbados, agreed in their speeches made at the opening ceremony, that new opportunities have currently emerged for China-CELAC cooperation and CELAC political parties were more than ready to enhance mutual understanding and promote consensus with the CPC to push forward social-economic development in their respective countries and elevate China-CELAC collaboration to a new height.
