1. China Development Bank (simply as CDB) would like to extend its sincere gratitude to President Alan Garcia and the Peruvian Government for passing a supreme ordinance on May 16, announcing May 19th of 2008 as a national mourning day for the victims of Wenchuan earthquake in China. As the largest development finance institution in China, CDB is giving full play to its role in earthquake relief efforts and post-disaster reconstruction. The bank has been playing an important role in promoting China’s economic development. I wish to take this opportunity to discuss with you how to reinforce the cooperation in development finance and boost the economic development of both China and Latin America.

2. Latin American and Caribbean Region (simply as LAC region) and China are geologically far from each other but enjoy a long history of friendship. In recent years, China-LAC economic and trade cooperation has entered a new stage of rapid and steady development, and a closer trade and investment tie has been built between China and LAC countries. Trade value between the two sides has increased substantially for many years, reaching US$102.6 billion in 2007, a year-on-year growth of 46%, thanks to the huge demand brought by the steady and rapid growth of China’s economy. Urbanization and industrialization have become a sustained driving force for China’s economic and social development. In view of the huge market composed of 1.3 billion consumers in China, there is big room for the growth of China-LAC trade. CDB would like to share with LAC countries its experience in promoting China’s economic and social development, and learn experience in related fields from each financial institution present at this meeting, in an effort to jointly contribute to our economic and social development.

3. Like most LAC countries, China is also one of the developing countries. Development finance is a financial vehicle. It is designed to alleviate the institutional backwardness and market failure, improve financial system and enhance economic strength. It combines the financing advantages of development finance institutions with the various resources, thus promoting market building. So that the market would play an essential role in allocating resources, and the business partners could complement each other with the advantages each possesses and achieve mutual benefit and win-win scenario in their cooperation.

4. As a development finance institution under the Chinese government, CDB regards “reinforcing the national strength and improving people’s livelihood” as its mission. In recent years, we have been actively practicing the theory of development finance, and have been an efficient finance provider and market builder. Our efforts have notably facilitated China’s economic and social development. We focus on supporting the construction of key projects in infrastructure, basic industries, pillar industries and high-tech industry. In the meantime, we have made active efforts to facilitate the development of some social bottleneck sectors and those involving the people’s livelihood, among them are the building of new socialist countryside, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), energy saving and environmental protection.

5. These efforts have contributed to the building of a harmonious society. Meanwhile, CDB has led the industry for six successive years in terms of major operating indicators. As of the end of December 2007, the total assets of CDB exceeded RMB2.8 trillion (approximately US$404.5 billion), the outstanding loans reached RMB2.03 trillion (approximately USD289.6 billion), and the NPL ratio 0.59%.

6. Referring to the practice of the bank, we have identified some effective approaches. The first is to establish channels to solve the problem of financial bottleneck; secondly, to integrate the advantage of the government as coordinator and the advantage of CDB as finance provider. This integration can be quite beneficial for our market building efforts. Thirdly, to use the development finance to promote the development of key sectors and alleviate the bottlenecks to economy; fourthly, to make sophisticated plan before taking action and to adopt a rational development path; fifthly, to strike a balance between macroeconomic task and profitability; and sixthly, to let the socialization of finance and the financialization of our society promote each other.

7. In response to the trend of economic globalization, CDB has been actively conducting international cooperation and providing financing services to overseas market. Firstly, we have been actively delivering bilateral and multilateral inter-bank cooperation CDB has established financial cooperation ties with many financial institutions in LAC region, such as Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela (BANDES) in Venezuela, Development Bank de Jamaica Limited in Jamaica, Banco National in Costa Rica, Banco de Estado in Ecuador, Banco de la Nacion and Banco de Inversion y Comercio Exterior (BICE) in Argentina, BNDES in Brazil, as well as some multinational institutions such as Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and Latin American Export Bank (BLADEX). CDB and BANDES has jointly established Sino- Venezuela Joint Fund, which plays a significant role in stimulating the bilateral cooperation in the realm of energy resources and the social and economic development

8. Secondly, we provide large-sized and qualified Chinese enterprises with a variety of financial services such as export credit, corporate finance, project finance and syndicated loans, to help them engage in the energy, minerals, telecommunications, transportation and other infrastructure sectors in the LAC ( region. Thirdly, we cooperate with several development finance institutions to support key infrastructure projects in LAC countries. For example, we provided a loan to BNDES to finance CASANE Nature Gas Pipeline project and we also co-finance Argos Cement project in Colombia with CAF. These efforts help promote the economic and social development of related cooperative countries and boost the bilateral relationship. By the end of April 2008,current outstanding loan of CDB in LAC region amounted US$ 7.75 billion, and our commitment has been US$12.5 billion.

9. We attach great importance to the mutual trust and understanding with each LAC country and have successively sent 16 small teams to LAC countries to with a view to deepen bilateral financial and economic cooperation. These teams have maintained close contacts and communications with member banks of ALIDE. ALIDE is a significant association of development finance institutions in LAC region, and an important force in boosting the social and economic development of the region. CDB wishes to establish an omni-directional, multi-level and diversified cooperation with members of ALIDE, to jointly support the economic and social development of each country concerned.

10. CDB believes in an even brighter future of financial and economic cooperation between China and LAC countries. CDB’s cooperation with each member of ALIDE is based on the principle of mutual benefit and common development. We give top priority to the support to key projects cared by the governments of the host countries, and will work with the governmental agencies and financial institutions of LAC countries to serve as a bridge between China and LAC region, through market-oriented and commercial operations. We will promote the trade and investment between the two, do our share for the economic and social development of LAC countries, and fulfill our commitment to the coming of a harmonious world! Thank you.