PRESIDENT Xi Jinping offered the world a vision of an Asia-Pacific dream yesterday, saying China’s economy will bring huge opportunities and benefits to the region and the world.

    “We have the responsibility to create and realize an Asia-Pacific dream for the people of the region,” he told the opening of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Beijing, which attracted over 1,500 businesspeople from 21 APEC member economies and 17 other countries and regions.

    Such a dream, he said, was “based on a shared destiny of all of the Asia-Pacific” and incorporated peace, development and mutual benefits.

    The APEC area includes 40 percent of the world’s population, almost half its trade, and more than half its GDP.

    China would focus on “managing its own affairs well” while looking to “bring more benefits to the Asia-Pacific and the world with its own development,” Xi said.

    As “China’s overall national strength grows,” he told his audience, it would be able and willing to offer “new initiatives and visions for enhancing regional cooperation.”

    “China wants to live in harmony with all its neighbors,” he added.

    China was expected to invest more than US$1.25 trillion abroad over the next decade, while outbound Chinese tourists would exceed 500 million over the next five years, Xi said.

    “For the Asia-Pacific and the world at large, China’s development will generate huge opportunities and benefits and hold lasting and infinite promise,” he said.(SD-Agencies)

    (APEC Special on P2)