JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered on Wednesday a speech titled "Keeping Abreast of the Trend of the Times to Achieve Common Development" at the BRICS Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Speech by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

At the BRICS Business Forum

Johannesburg, 25 July 2018

Your Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa,

Your Excellency President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo,

Your Excellency Deputy President David Mabuza of South Africa,

Ministers,

Friends from the business community,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

Good afternoon! I am delighted to visit South Africa, the "rainbow nation," once again and meet you here in the beautiful city of Johannesburg. The first international summit I attended after taking office as Chinese president five years ago was the fifth BRICS Summit held in Durban. Three years ago, right here in this convention center, I attended the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit with African leaders.

Nearly three years on, as I once again set foot on the African continent, I am struck by its robust growth and strong vitality.

Thanks to the strong support of all participating parties, China successfully hosted the BRICS Xiamen Summit last September. We as BRICS leaders unanimously agreed to strengthen our strategic partnership, consolidate the cooperation architecture with its three main drivers, namely, economic cooperation, political and security cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges. We thus laid out a vision of BRICS+ cooperation and jointly ushered in the second Golden Decade of BRICS cooperation.

I understand that in the Nguni language, Johannesburg means the "Place of Gold." We cannot find a better place to chart the course for our Golden Decade than in this city of gold. Here in Johannesburg, I look forward to working with other BRICS leaders to embark on a new journey of BRICS cooperation and fulfill our new mission.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

The BRICS mechanism owes its birth and growth to evolution of both the global economy and the international landscape. In its first decade, BRICS cooperation got off the ground and bore rich fruit. We five BRICS countries, guided by the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, have deepened our cooperation, enhanced our solidarity and mutual trust, improved the lives of our peoples, and made our bond of interests and friendship even closer. Indeed, our cooperation has contributed much to global economic recovery and growth.

We are witnessing major changes unfolding in our world, something unseen in a century. This is a world of both opportunities and challenges for us emerging markets and developing countries. We should pursue BRICS cooperation in the historical process of global transformation, and we should promote the development of our own countries in the historical course of promoting the common development of both BRICS countries and other countries in the world, thus making new advances in the next Golden Decade.

-- The next decade will be a crucial one in which new global growth drivers will take the place of old ones. A new round of revolution and transformation in science, technology and industries featuring artificial intelligence, big data, quantum information and bio-technology are gaining momentum. They are giving birth to a large number of new industries and business forms and models and will fundamentally change global development and people's work and lives. We must seize this important opportunity to enable emerging markets and developing countries to achieve leapfrog development.

-- The next decade will see faster changes in the international landscape and the international alignment of forces. Emerging markets and developing countries already contribute 80 percent of global economic growth. Based on exchange rate calculation, these countries account for nearly 40 percent of the global economic output. Growing at their current rates, these countries will see their economic output approach half of the global total in a decade. The collective rise of emerging markets and developing countries is unstoppable, and it will make global development more balanced and global peace more firmly based.

-- The next decade will see a profound reshaping of the global governance system. The world is moving toward multi-polarity and greater economic globalization amid setbacks. Geopolitical hotspots keep emerging, and the dark shadow of terrorism and armed conflicts still haunts us. Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime. The international community has reached a new crossroads; and we are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening-up and a close-door policy, and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbor approach. Thus, the evolution of global governance system will have a profound impact on the development of all countries, particularly emerging markets and developing countries, and indeed on the prosperity and stability of the whole world.

We BRICS countries should keep abreast of the historical trend, seize development opportunities, jointly meet challenges, and play a constructive role in building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

First, we should pursue win-win cooperation to build an open economy. Openness and cooperation are the sure way to achieve progress in science and technology and growth of productivity. A trade war should be rejected, because there will be no winner. Economic hegemony is even more objectionable, as it will undermine the collective interests of the international community; those who pursue this course will only end up hurting themselves.

As the world economy is going through profound transition and changes, only by opening themselves can different countries achieve mutual benefit, shared prosperity and sustainable development. This should be the right choice for all countries. We BRICS countries should firmly promote an open world economy, be resolute in rejecting unilateralism and protectionism, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and jointly steer the global economy toward greater openness, inclusiveness, balanced growth and win-win outcomes for all. We should ensure that economic globalization will deliver more benefits. We should help emerging markets and developing countries, African countries and the least developed countries in particular, fully involve themselves in international division of labor and share in the benefits of economic globalization.

Second, we should pursue innovation and seize development opportunities. Science and technology, as the primary production forces, have provided inexhaustible power driving progress of human civilization. Humanity had made giant leaps forward as it progressed from an agricultural civilization to an industrial civilization, a process which created both huge gains in social productivity and growing pains. The world today has once again reached a critical historic juncture. In the unfolding new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, new things will inevitably emerge and take the place of old ones. Indeed, this will be a difficult and painful process. But if countries succeed in seizing opportunities that have presented themselves, they will be able to achieve new dynamic growth and deliver better lives to their people.

In the face of new opportunities brought by new science and technology, every country has an equal right to development. Those who fail to keep abreast of the trend of the times will fall behind and become irrelevant. What we can and should do is to seize opportunities, increase input in innovation, focus on creating new areas of growth and replace old growth drivers with new ones. We should endeavor to advance structural reform, remove all institutional barriers to innovation and fully unlock innovation potential and energize the market. We should develop a global perspective, boost international exchanges and cooperation in innovation, and fully leverage each other's comparative strengths and resource endowment, so as to enable more countries and people to benefit from scientific and technological advances. At the same time, we should ease the impact of application of information technology, automation and smart technology on traditional industries and create new job opportunities in the process of fostering new industries. (More)