October 1, 2022 marks the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China（PRC）. Since the founding of the PRC, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China（CPC）, the Chinese people of all ethnic groups have been pursing self-improvement and working hard, and have made great achievements attracting worldwide attention, especially in the ten years since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, China has ensured political stability, social harmony and economic development, new historic achievements have been made in reform and opening up and modernization：

With the economic strength jumping to a new level, the regional development has become more coordinated. China's economic growth has reached an average annual rate of 6.5%, and its proportion in the world economy has risen from 11.3% to more than 18%. China has become a major contributor to world economic growth and formed a strong domestic demand market with an economic aggregate of more than 100 trillion yuan, 1.4 billion population and a middle class income group of about 400 million people. The coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other major regional strategies have led to historic changes and achievements in China's regional development. The balance, coordination and complementarity of regional development have continued to increase.

With the accelerated formation of an open economy, the breadth and depth of opening to the outside world have been comprehensively expanded. In 2021, China's actual use of foreign capital reached 1.15 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world, and the scale of foreign investment ranked first among developing countries; the global ranking of business environment has jumped from the 96th in 2013 to the 31st; The volume of commodity exports accounts for 15% in the international market share from 11%, the status of the largest country in trade in goods has been enhanced; a high-standard free trade zone network has been created and the number of free trade agreements signed with foreign countries has increased from 10 to 19; 21 free trade pilot zones and Hainan Free Trade Port has been established to create a series of new highlands and experimental fields for reform and opening up, forming a new pattern of all-round and high-level opening up.

With the doubled scale of high-tech industries, the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship gets stronger. China's global innovation index ranking has risen from 34th to 12th; the operating income of high-tech industries has doubled from 9.95 trillion yuan to 19.91 trillion yuan; the proportion of high-tech manufacturing in industrial added value above designated size has increased from 9.4% to 15.1%, the number of high-tech manufacturing industrial enterprises above designated size increased from 24,600 to 41,400, and the R&D investment intensity of high-tech industries increased from 1.68% to 2.67%; basic research funding increased by 3 times, and domestic invention patents, the number of PCT international applications rank first in the world; the scale of the digital economy ranks second in the world, and the development and application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum communication, and intelligent driving are at the forefront of the world; high-speed railways and 5G networks constructions are world-leading; major breakthroughs have been made in the fields of manned spaceflight and Mars exploration, great progress has been made in building an innovative country.

With the ecological environment achieved a historic turning point, people's living standards have been improved in an all-round way. Afforestation accounts for about 1/4 of the world's artificial afforestation, and the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have dropped by about 34%. The total installed capacity of green power such as wind power and photovoltaic power generation and the production and sales of new energy vehicles are the world's No. 1; nearly 100 million people in rural areas have been lifted out of poverty, making a huge contribution to the cause of poverty reduction in the world; the world's largest systems in education, social security and healthcare have been established; the average life expectancy has increased from 75.4 years to 77.9 years, and the proportion of middle-income groups has increased from 1/4 to 1/3, people's living standards and quality continue to improve.

This year, the adverse effects of the COVID-19 and some other crises have accelerated the development of the world's unprecedented changes unseen in a century. The outlook for the world economic situation is full of challenges. The International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for global economic growth this year to 3.2%, and the World Bank even lowered it to 2.9%. Under the new circumstances, the fundamentals of China's economy, which has strong resilience, ample potential, wide room for manoeuvre and long-term growth momentum have not changed. China's status as an important engine for global economic growth has not changed, and the international community's confidence in China's economic prospects has not changed. In the first half of 2022, China's gross domestic product (GDP) was 56,264.2 billion yuan, with an increase of 2.5% in real terms; infrastructure investment in the first half of the year increased by 7.1%, and the total planned investment in new projects increased by 22.9%; residents consumer prices rose by 1.7%, lower than the expected target of around 3% for the whole year; the unemployment rate fell to 5.5% in June, and per capita disposable income increased by 3.0% after deducting price factors; the total value of imports and exports of trade in goods was 19.8 trillion yuan , an increase of 9.4%.

At present, changes of the world, of our times and of history are unfolding in ways like never before. These changes are posing challenges that must be taken seriously by humanity. China is determined to act as a responsible major country. We have made great efforts to safeguard international peace and security and to explore the way forward for humanity. President Xi Jinping’s vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind has been warmly received and widely endorsed by the international community. China stands for upholding peace and opposing war and turbulence, pursuing development and eliminating poverty, remaining open and opposing exclusion, staying engaged in cooperation and opposing confrontation, strengthening solidarity and opposing division, upholding equity and opposing bullying. China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order. In April this year, President Xi Jinping put forward a global security initiative for the first time in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022,  which advocates a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, follows the philosophy that humanity is an indivisible security community, and aims to create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum. Today countries are interdependent with each other, we must abandon the Cold War mentality of zero-sum game and practice the true multilateralism. Only then can the world achieve true peace.

In the face of rising instability and uncertainties in the world, as two major forces for maintaining world peace, China and the EU maintain strategic communication, enhance strategic mutual trust, expand cooperation consensus, promote the sustainable and healthy development of China-EU relations, injecting positive energy into the international community. On April 1 this year, the 23rd China-EU Summit was successfully held. Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the President of European Council Charles Michel and the President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen via video link. Premier Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting with the two Presidents. The leaders of the two sides had in-depth exchanges for a long time, and exchanged views on China-EU relations, dialogue and cooperation in various fields, and international and regional hotspot issues, which enhanced the understanding of each other's positions. The summit reached many consensus and yielded fruitful results, making strategic plans for the development of China-EU relations in the next stage.

Dialogue and cooperation remains the mainstream of China-EU relations. Mutual benefit is the underlying tone of China’s cooperation with Europe. For the first eight months of this year, China-EU trade increased by 8.8% year-on-year and EU investment in China went up by 123.7%. The China-Europe Railway Express made its 10,000th trip of the year 10 days sooner than last year. The two sides made good progress or reached agreements on macroeconomic policy coordination, supply and industrial chain cooperation, WTO reform, greater market access, implementation of the China-EU agreement on geographical indications, animal and plant inspection and quarantine, and two-way opening-up of the financial sector and regulatory cooperation. All these speak to the vibrancy and resilience of China-EU cooperation.

Estonia is an important cooperative partner of China in the Baltic region and Europe. Our two countries enjoy traditional friendship. With the joint efforts of both sides, the relationship between China and Estonia has kept developing. China attaches great importance to China-Estonia relations and is willing to work with Estonia to further create new highlights in the development of bilateral relations.

On October 16, the CPC will convene its 20th National Congress, which is to be a very important meeting at a critical moment when the CPC and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups are embarking on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way and marching toward the second centenary goal. This Congress will scientifically plan the goals, tasks and major policies for the development of the CPC and China in the next five years or even longer. The Chinese people are full of confidence and high spirits, and under the leadership of the Central Committee of CPC with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, they are making unremitting efforts to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

On the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, I sincerely wish China and Estonia greater prosperity and happiness and well-being of the people!