On the morning of July 1 local time, Premier Li Keqiang delivered a keynote speech at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) upon invitation. Mme. Cheng Hong, wife of Premier Li Keqiang, and Secretary-General Angel Gurría of the OECD and his wife were present.

Li Keqiang said that in the past 30-odd years of reform and opening up, China has taken development as the top priority at all times and made world-renowned significant achievements in economic and social development. Yet China remains the largest developing country in the world. There is no precedent in human history for a country with a population of over one billion to achieve modernization, and thus long-term and strenuous efforts are required. We clearly recognize the challenges ahead and have made the greatest determination to strive for the modernization goal of catching up with moderately developed countries by the middle of this century.

Li Keqiang put forward the following three points:

First, maintain the environment of peaceful development. It is the generally peaceful international environment since the victory of the World Anti-fascist War and the foundation of the United Nations (UN) 70 years ago that has facilitated unprecedented development and prosperity of the world. We should cherish the hard-won victory results even more and firmly safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter as well as the post-war international order and system with the UN as the core. Chinese culture has been advocating harmony and virtues since ancient times. China was, is and will be a firm defender and promoter of world peace and international order.

Second, accelerate structural reforms. Crisis often breeds reform. Taking lessons from international financial crises, vigorously pushing forward structural reforms and eliminating obstacles in the system and mechanism are not only conducive to stimulating public initiatives and creativity, but also helpful for equitable distribution and contributive to inclusive growth, and are the indispensable approach to deal with the challenges of downward world economy. In recent years, the Chinese government has been vigorously advocating mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and powerfully pushing forward streamlining administration and delegating powers to lower-level governments, integrating power-delegation with governance, and optimizing services. The market has witnessed a spurt of new participants, most of which belong to small and micro businesses and the service industry, with a large capacity of job opportunities. Though China's economic growth has slowed down a little, employment has increased rather than decreased and youth employment has steadily increased, which is just a result of reform and innovation.

Third, carry out international cooperation in production capacity. With a population of nearly six billion, developing countries have a great demand for infrastructure construction and equipment. China has entered the mid-term stage of industrialization, with huge economic volume, more than 200 kinds of industrial products enjoying the highest output in the world, and equipment being in the medium of the global industrial chain with high value-for-money. Meanwhile, developed countries are in the late or post-industrial stage of industrialization, with advanced technology and equipment. China is willing to combine its own equipment with the demand of developing countries and the advantages of developed countries to promote international cooperation in production capacity. China will not only adopt the advanced technical equipment of developed countries and conduct production and assembly locally for the developing countries, but also cooperate with financing institutions in financing to provide energy-saving and environmentally-friendly equipment of high quality and low price, production capacity and guaranteed financial service for the global market, which will not only improve the industrial level of developing countries, but also force the upgrading of China's equipment industry and other industries, and drive the export of key technologies and originality of the developed countries, thus realizing triple-win results. This is a new path to promote North-South Cooperation and South-South Cooperation as well as a cure for tackling climate change and the weak global economic recovery.

Li Keqiang also introduced the current economic operation and the macroeconomic policy orientation of China, and said that the Chinese government has faith in and is able to realize the expected aims of economic development, and to strive to maintain a medium-high speed of economic growth and to stride forward to the medium-high level. As a developing country, China is willing to work together with the OECD to become a practitioner as well as a thinker to work out more good ideas and carry out more practical actions so as to push forward common development and better improve the well-being of all mankind.

After delivering the speech, Li Keqiang also answered questions from the audience concerning China-OECD relations, promoting international governance and others.

More than 500 people including French government officials, representatives of member countries in the OECD and well-known local experts and scholars attended the activity of the day. They rewarded Li Keqiang's speech and answers to the questions with long and warm applauses.

At noon that day, Li Keqiang and his wife, Mme. Cheng Hong, left by special plane for Marseille, a city in southern France, to continue their visit to France.