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G20 London Summit > Commentary
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China acts responsibly in fighting crisis(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-01 15:17 CHINA ADOPTS MULTIPLE MEASURES TO HELP RIDE OUT CRISIS Since last November, China has unveiled a series of measures to boost its economy. "Facing economic difficulties, China is working to solve problems from inside instead of passing them on to others," Zhang Bin, a research fellow with the Chinese Academies of Social Sciences, told Xinhua. He said that by doing so, China is quite responsible for itself and the rest of the world. In addition, China has lent a helping hand to many countries. It has provided assistance and support through a variety of means to a number of countries and regions since the G20 summit in Washington last November China has signed bilateral currency swap agreements worth 580 billion yuan (about 85.3 billion US dollars) with different countries and regions and played a part in the creation of significant regional and global economic and trade initiatives, such as the Chiang Mai initiative and the International Finance Corporation's global trade finance program. To demonstrate in practical deeds its opposition to trade protectionism, the Chinese government sent Chinese companies on procurement missions to Europe and made purchases worth 13.6 billion dollars. China wrote off more than 40 billion yuan (about 5.85 billion dollars) worth of debts from 46 least developed countries by 2008, and its economic assistance to developing countries has exceeded 200 billion yuan (some 29.4 billion dollars). It has pledged to eliminate all debts from least developed countries due by the end of last year, and promised to impose zero tariff on 95 percent of the products imported from these countries. On the reform of the international financial system, China is proposing some new ideas, with a view to rolling back the global economic downturn. Zhou Xiaochuan, China's central bank governor, said recently that a new super-sovereign reserve currency should replace national reserve currencies as the backbone of the global monetary system. In response to Zhou's proposal, Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said that Russia and China "have similar positions" on the reform of the international financial system. Both Russia and China have voiced support for the notion of a "supra-national reserve currency" and the two countries have held discussions over the issue, he said. "Indeed, we have similar positions," Dvorkovich said, adding the London summit may initiate broad consultations over the issue. Speaking of China's role in reshaping the international financial system, World Bank Vice President James Adams said that China would play an important part at the G20 summit in London. "China has emerged as a very strong, important force in the global dialogue on key global economic and political issues today, " he said. |
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