Hu: Confidence, cooperation required amid crisis

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-11-16  |     ONLINE EDITION

Chinese President Hu Jintao said yesterday in Washington, United States, that the international community should enhance confidence and cooperation in efforts to cope with the current financial crisis.

Hu made the remarks when meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Both were in Washington to attend the Group of 20 summit on financial markets and world economy, which ended earlier in the day.

The international financial crisis is spreading and worse still, is infiltrating from the virtual economy into the real economy, Hu said.

To cope with the crisis, Hu said efforts should be focused on three aspects:

-- Effective measures should be adopted to prevent the further spreading of the crisis and help the market to regain confidence

-- Efforts should be made to minimize the adverse impact upon the real economy so as to avoid a global recession

-- Pushing ahead with the reform of international financial systems so as to avoid the recurrence of similar crises.

China hopes that all countries in the world would make concerted efforts and achieve the goals set forth in the summit, he said.

Brown said the summit has shown to the world that countries worldwide have addressed the crisis through closer collaboration and cooperation.

He said there were lack of confidence, consumption remained weak and credit was still being tightened. He called for further measures to stimulate economic growth.

Before the summit, China has announced a sweeping plan to expand domestic demand. The central government's investment, combined with that of businesses and local governments, would bring the total spending to 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) by the end of 2010. Britain expressed appreciation for China's efforts to promote economic growth, Brown told Hu.