I am very pleased to have an opportunity to participate in this important meeting. I would like to thank our Chinese colleagues for providing me with an opportunity to address representatives.

　　The China Council has served as a high level forum for policy dialogue, and a source of policy recommendations, on issues related to environment and development - one might say, sustainable development – for more than a decade. Over the last couple of years, OECD representatives have participated in three of the Task Forces established by the China Council; and I believe that there is scope for a closer cooperation between our activities.

　　In fact, OECD has had a programme of dialogue and co-operation with China since 1995, covering most areas of public policy, including environment. We have been pleased to share the accumulated experience of our Member countries with China, and to learn from China's own development experience. We believe the China Council provides an excellent opportunity to strengthen and deepen our cooperation.

　　China's environmental and development policies are not just of domestic concern. The way these issues are resolved will have ramifications for the world economy. For this reason, environmental protection is one of the priority areas for OECD-China co-operation. Indeed, the challenges China faces today – be it in relation to the management of water, air, agriculture, manufacturing – are the same issues that OECD countries have been and are still tackling together. No country can solve these problems alone. The potential benefits of multilateral co-operation are very large, as the China Council is well aware, but still mostly unexploited. The OECD is very much open to working together to find solutions for our mutual benefit.

　　One of the strengths of the OECD is that we offer a whole of government, multidisciplinary perspective. Our goal is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of policies and policy instruments. Our accumulated experience is incorporated into policy guidelines, recommendations, best practices, and analytical documents. We hope that this horizontal and integrated approach to policymaking will be of interest to China.

　　I do not wish to take more of your time at this point in your agenda, but let me just mention four activities that we have carried out, or are carrying out, with our Chinese counter parts:

•  In 2002, we published a report, "China in the World Economy" that examined how China might maximise the benefits of trade and investment liberalisation and China's entry in to the WTO;
•  We are currently concluding a major review of governance in China that will be issued early next year;
•  We are also conducting an economic survey of China, similar to the surveys that we conduct for our own countries;
•  And finally, and perhaps of greatest interest to this group, we will carry out an environmental performance review of China that we hope will be concluded in 2006.

　　To conclude: Sustainable development is a global challenge. Innovative policies and technologies are needed to better integrate our economic development objectives with those for environmental and social protection. This body has been at the forefront of thinking about how this can be achieved in China. OECD and its Members have established sustainable development as an over-riding objective, and we have carried out a great deal of work to support our Members achieve this objective. I hope to be able to share some of these experiences with you over the next few days and in the future.

　　Thank you for your attention.