Speaking to the local media in Doha to introduce the upcoming 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on October 18, he stressed the importance of this event, which takes place every five years in China to lay development plans and strategy for the upcoming five years.
He stressed that throughout the past five years China has made great achievements in all fields attaining a growth rate of 7.2% while the global growth rate stood at 2.6% and 4% for emerging economies. However, in the past two years there has been a slowdown, which is a natural outcome of the global economic stagnation.
The ambassador stressed that the Qatar and China enjoy strong, friendly relationships and good co-operation in various fields that include security, trade, energy, culture, military education, which have great potential for further growth.
"We see Qatar as an excellent partner in the region, with a distinguished role. China has also a serious desire to enhance joint economic and business cooperation with Qatar. Besides, there is a great interest to develop such good relationships into higher levels in all fields," pointed out Li Chen.
Regarding the current Gulf crisis, he stressed that China's stand has been clear since the beginning, rejecting any interference in the internal affairs of any country and hoped for a friendly resolution of the differences between what he described as brotherly countries. He said a good number of senior Chinese officials visited Qatar after the crisis began and stressed that China feels that a resolution should be reached through dialogue and it should be within the GCC council, as a distinguished regional organisation.
"China calls for peace and stability in the region with more focus on economic development enhancing good relationships between countries," he said.
The ambassador stressed that China and Qatar are both keen to fight terrorism and enhance security cooperation between the two countries. In the meantime, he sees trade between the two countries constantly increasing.
Ambassador Li Chen said that "the 19th congress is an important meeting being held while China is striving to achieve a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and at a critical time in the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will analyze the present international and domestic situations, and draw out guidelines and policies that respond to the call of the times".
He added that: "There is every reason to be confident about the country's growth. Last year, China contributed about 15% of global GDP, and GDP per capita reached 53,980 yuan ($8,011)."
China has set 2020 as the target year to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society, which requires the eradication of poverty. To achieve this goal, it needs to lift more than 10mn people out of poverty every year. The upcoming congress will be attended by 2,287 delegates in Beijing. Participants will include high-ranking government officials, party leaders, and military officers as well as grassroots party members from "frontline production and manufacturing" such as workers, farmers, technicians, nurses and teachers.
The ambassador pointed out that upcoming period in China would focus on enhancing creativity, high quality of work, invention and innovation, in addition to paying more attention to reducing environmental pollution and treating the byproducts of speedy development.
The 19th Congress of the CPC is considered of great importance not only for China but as a global event that could influence the world economic scene as China is a major player in the world economy.
Chinese ambassador Li Chen talking to local media in Doha.
Qatar and China enjoy very strong relationships in various fields and bialteral economic and trade co-operation is growing fast, Chinese ambassador Li Chen has said.
