Vice Premier Wu, State Councilor Song, Distinguished Members of the China Council and Honored Guests:

　　I am honoured to be elected to the position of International Vice-Chairman for t his Council. It will be a pleasure to serve under the chairmanship of State Councilors Mr. Song Jian. All of us are fortunate that the Council is headed by a man with such impressive qualities-a distinguished academic record in both Chinese and Western universities, an impressive government career taking him up the most senior position responsible for China's environment, science and technology, and a personality notable for its wisdom and earth.

　　I am also honored to serve as the International Member on the fourman bureau of Chairpersons. My colleagues from the international side of the Council represent such a diversity of talents, interests, and nationalities, that it will be a daunting task to represent them adequately, but, at least, I shall try to represent them diligently.

　　May I begin by extending sincere congratulations to the Chinese Government on it s initiative in creating this unique and timely consultative body to discuss topics of such great and urgent concern. Our Terms of Reference cover subjects of the highest national and international importance. China should be commended for its vision and daring in creating a Council which has three, distinguishing features:

　　-it wisely encompasses both environmental protection and economic development because they are related subjects;

　　-it invites Chinese and international experts to deliberate together and to learn from each others' experiences;

　　-it is given a five year mandate because it would be unrealistic to expect the Council to deal adequately with such a huge, complex and important subject in a short time.

　　This Chinese administration deserves praise for forming this Council and for the comprehensive environmental legislation and monitoring system adopted in recent years. However, it must be said frankly that its predecessor administrations, n elected the environment in their single-minded emphasis on economic growth. China now faces enormous environmental problems that require urgent action in order to safeguard the well-being of this generation and future generations. In order to help you, we will sometimes have to offer criticism but we shall always try to present it with a constructive purpose.

　　The International Members of the Council have come here in a spirit of fraternal concern for the daunting problems that face 22% of our human race. We believe that some of our technologies, methodologies and policies may be relevant to your needs. At the same time we are mindful that, because your cultural and institutional setting is unique, our approaches may have to be modified and adapted before they can work here. We come, not with any preconception that our technology and our systems will always be relevant to China's problems. We do come in a spirit of working together in order to find pragmatic solutions to problems which are urgent and serious for China and for the world.