Mr. Prime Minister and Mrs. Kok,
　　Ladies and Gentlemen,

　　It gives me great pleasure to pay an official goodwill visit to the Netherlands at the invitation of Prime Minister Kok.  I visited your country once before in 1991 when I was mayor of Shanghai.  I was then deeply impressed by the picturesque landscape of the kingdowm of tulips, the diligence, wisdom and ingenuity of the Dutch people, their splendid achievements in philosophy, literature and art, their world-renowned success in developing industry, agriculture and an economy of Dutch characteristics, and their heroic and tenacious spirit demonstrated in harnessing the nature.  Nine years later today, I have come again to acquaint myself with the latest achievements your people have made in economic development and nation-building, to discuss with Prime Minister Kok and other leaders on ways to further strengthen Sino-Dutch relations in all areas, and to exchange views with them on a wide range of issues so as to expand common ground and promote cooperation.

　　The Netherlands was among the first West European countries to recognize the new China.  In the past 28 years since we established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, our bilateral ties have grown steadily on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit and yielded rich fruits.  The recent years have witnessed a gratifying momentum of development of relations and frequent exchange of high-level visits.  Last year, Her Majesty the Queen paid a successful state visit to China, which has deepened the mutual understanding and trust between the two countries and peoples and injected fresh vitality into their friendship and cooperation in various fields.  The Netherlands has been China’s 4th largest trading partner in Western Europe for four consecutive years.  The trade volume between our two countries reached a record high of $6.423 billion last year and grew further in the first four months this year by 37.1% over the same period of last year.  More and more Dutch firms have made investments and setup factories in China.  Philips, Unilever, Akzo Nobel, Macro and others have seen their business in China grow steadily.  The two sides have increased their exchanges in the educational, scientific, technological, cultural and other areas.  In particular, their cooperation in the maritime environmental biology, geology, particle physics, railway engineering and medicine has gone well and produced marked results.  In view of the sound development of relations in all fields, we are fully confident about the prospects of our relations.

　　Ladies and Gentlemen,

　　Situated in the Asian and European continents, China and the Netherlands are geographically far apart.  They differ from each other in the social system, history, culture, tradition, values and level of economic development.  While sharing extensive common interests, we do not always have identical views, and we may even have differences over some issues.  Take the human rights issue as an example.  We may see eye to eye in some aspects of the issue and do not agree with each other on others.  Regarding the differences, we maintain that we should increase mutual understanding and gradually narrow and iron out differences through dialogues and exchanges on an equal footing and with mutual respect.  The course of the development of our relationship has proved that this is the right approach.  Positive results have already been produced in the dialogues between China and the Netherlands and other EU countries on the human rights issue and judicial matters.  We stand ready to further strengthen our cooperation with you in these fields.

　　Tremendous changes have taken place in China since the reform and opening-up policy was introduced more than 20 years ago.  Social productive forces have grown considerably, the aggregate national strength has increased markedly and the people’s living standards have improved steadily.  A socialist market economic system has roughly taken shape.  An all-directional opening-up pattern has emerged. Remarkable economic progress has been accompanied by continuously improved democracy and legal system.  Against the backdrop of accelerated development of science and technology and economic globalization, China will continue to deepen reform and open wider to the outside world.  China’s modernization is entering a new stage in which we will restructure our economy in a big way and implement the grand strategy of large-scale development of China’s West, a strategy of sustainable development and one of national revitalization based on science and technology.  We warmly welcome Dutch friends from all walks of life to China to take a more active part in China’s modernization drive and, in particular, the large-scale development of China’s West, so that our mutually-beneficial cooperation will be elevated to a new high.  We wish to work with all of you to build a better relationship in the future.

　　In conclusion, I would like to propose a toast

　　to the prosperity of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,

　　to the continued development of Sino-Dutch friendly relations,

　　to the health of H.M. Queen Beatrix,

　　to the health of Prime Minister and Mrs. Kok,

　　and to the health of all the friend present here.

　　Cheers!