13th, October, 2005
Ladies and Gentlemen,
With the great support and cooperation from the colleagues here, China shipbuilding industry, being a newly emerged force, undertook for the first time, the JECKU preparatory and top executive meetings, and has made these meetings a success. Being the chairman of this year’s JECKU meeting, I would like to make the following statement:
The JECKU Top Executive Meeting was held in Hangzhou, China from October 12 to October 14, 2005. 89 representatives from Japan, Europe, China, Korea and USA attended the meeting. During the meeting, all representatives sincerely exchanged their opinion and views on issues of common concern, which has further improved the understanding and enhanced the cooperation among all parties.
All representatives took the view that in the past several years due to the development of the world economy and the increase of international trade, the world shipbuilding market has reached its historical peak on the demand side. Subsequently, the world shipbuilding industry has accomplished new achievements. However, due to the cyclical nature of the world shipping market, the demand for newbuilding will step into a stable stage and gradually slow down.
The representatives recognized the negative impact on the global shipbuilding industry caused by the increased prices of steel and other raw materials as well as the fluctuation of foreign exchanges. Furthermore, they also believed that it is of vital importance for our industry to look into the future market prospects and consider a more appropriate way to offset the imbalance between supply and demand. In view of all the above-mentioned challenges, it is necessary for the world shipbuilding industry to jointly take certain counter-measures in time.
In addition, issues concerning on-going negotiations of the OECD Shipbuilding Agreement, common rules of ship structures, shipbuilding product liability and etc have been discussed. Moreover, the chairman of the CESS meeting has given a report on the new development of CESS and how to extend its role. The representatives agreed that all these issues are of common interest and worthwhile examining so that a broader common understanding could be established among all parties.
Finally, all representatives acknowledged that in order to maintain and promote the development and prosperity of the world shipbuilding industry, it is very important to strengthen the exchange and cooperation among the shipbuilding countries and regions, especially under the increasingly complicated business environment. JECKU has provided an excellent platform to serve this purpose.
According to the alphabetic order of the JECKU meeting, the 15th JECKU Top Executive Meeting will be held in Korea in 2006. We look forward to meeting you all there.
Thank you very much!