BOAO, Hainan, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday called on countries around the world to show more openness and respect for diversity to facilitate common development.
He made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2013 held in Boao, a coastal town in south China's Hainan Province.
Countries should remain open and inclusive so as to create broad space for enhancing common development, Xi told the ceremony, quoting the Chinese saying "the ocean is vast because it admits hundreds of rivers."
"We should respect the right of a country to independently choose its social system and development path, remove distrust and misgivings and turn the diversity of our world and difference among countries into dynamism and driving force for development," he said.
Countries should keep an open mind, draw upon development practices of other continents, share development resources and promote regional cooperation, he said.
Giving an example, Xi said trade within Asia has increased from 800 billion U.S. dollars to 3 trillion U.S. dollars since the beginning of the new century, and its trade with other regions has grown from 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars to 4.8 trillion U.S. dollars.
"This shows that cooperation in Asia is open and it goes hand in hand with Asia's cooperation with other regions, and everyone has benefited from such cooperation," said the president.
He urged Asia to welcome non-Asian countries to play a constructive role in ensuring stability and regional development.
Meanwhile, non-Asian countries should respect Asia's diversity and its long-standing tradition of cooperation, he said.
"This will create a dynamic environment in which Asia and other regions enjoy mutually reinforcing progress," Xi said.
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