Li Shufu: every one can have many stars

During the past few decades, economic globalization and free trade and investment have moved forward the world's economic growth and the progress of the human beings' commercial civilization.

Today, the world economy has arrived at a new historical crossroad. Climate change, shortage of resources, environmental deterioration, slow economic growth, unemployment, geopolitics, area conflicts and social unrest, global financial crisis, emerging trade barriers, and so on…. people tend to link all the above mentioned problems with industries and economic development very naturally, the economic globalization is facing a new challenge. In fact, all these problems are just interim in the process of globalization. As long as the mankind has a firm faith, abide by the spirit of human-centricity, transform the economic structure, continuously improve economic policies and system and follow the principle of "Transparent Communication, Collaboration and Win-Win", we could solve all problems and grow the economy to achieve peace, development and common prosperity.

EU sets a very good example to illustrate my perspective. EU countries have made tremendous efforts in working together and achieved a very good progress by opening up the country borders, freeing up the market and unifying a Euro monetary system. I believe all EU countries and people have benefited a lot from this collaboration. In the recent years, I traveled a lot to Europe and particularly Sweden and Belgium. I found their business environment attractive, engineers are very focused on research and innovation and the practical culture and peace of mind of people enabled the development of high-quality, high-tech products in Europe.

EU's collaboration with China is another example for win-win and has achieved a good success though we still have some problems to fix. As the result of EU-China economic cooperation and the globalization, Geely Holding Group of China acquired Volvo Cars Corporation in August, 2010. Our principle is to keep Volvo a permier global brand headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden and China its second home base.

The Chinese people, since more than 2,000 years ago, believe in the harmony of the human beings and the nature. We believe the mankind was born out of the nature and are an integral part of it. The mankind cannot conquer the nature and should co-exist peacefully. At the time being, the people living on the planet are facing a common challenge of climate change. The business community, particularly the manufacturing sector should play our due roles and responsibilities.

Volvo was the first car maker to raise automobile's impact on environment to the United Nations in as early as 1972. Since then, Volvo has been investing and developing break-through technologies in the area of safety and environmental care and has made tremendous contribution to the harmonious co-existence of automobiles and the environment. Volvo's invention and investment in safety and environment care include the safe cage, laminated windscreen, three-point safety point, rear-facing child seat, three-way catalytic converter with oxygen sensor, city safety system, safety airbag, side impact collision protection, collission warning with full auto-brake and pedestrian detection, the world's first car accident research center and the most advanced safety center. Volvo's plan is to achieve zero emission and zero accident by year 2010.

Geely shared the same values and prioritize sustainability as part of our mission and business strategy. Geely has been selected a top 10 green company in China by Daonong Institute and Tsinghua University in the past few years.

After Geely acquired Volvo Cars, our guiding principle is Geely is Geely, Volvo is Volvo, Geely and Volvo are brothers. Volvo is a premium brand while Geely is a volume brand, the two brothers will learn from each other, progress together and turn our collaboration into a success case in the EU-China bilateral relations. We will give thorough respect to the commercial civilization in Europe and continue to retain and strengthen Volvo's core values as a leading global brand and continue to more forward the world's auto industry's endeavor in safety and environmental care. We are committed to collaborating with other companies to sustainability and saving the planet.

While we should take good care of the sole planet we live on today, the human beings should also look outside into the universe where there are innumerable stars. If the mankind can be bolder and adopt a more scientific attitude, unceasingly explore and speed up the study of the universe, we could for sure seek further development in the vast universe although it will take a very long period of time. The thought of living on one planet only is narrow and will not help the people on the earth to unite and collaborate.

Theoretically the quantity of humanity is limited, but the universe is an infinite space where there are innumerable planets for the humanity to explore. Therefore, I think each person on the earth could have many stars to live on in the universe if the humanity unites together. I believe protection of the earth and exploration of the space are the ultimate solutions for the human beings. To open the door of the universe, peace and development is the key. Unity is strength, harmony is another. As long as the humanity unlock their wisdom, unite their strength scientifically, and embark on the way toward the universe, I believe the conflicts and clashes amongst the people on the earth will dramatically reduce and our happiness index will raise dramatically. The beautiful earth and the vast and boundless universe are humanity's common homelands.

Collaboration, win-win, peace and development have already become a consensus for everyone. If we continue along this road, the day will certainly come for each person to have many stars. I believe that no matter Europe, China or others, each country should encourage enterprises to explore with more freedom, advocate a freer and more open economy, set free the people's mindset, imagination and inspiration, commit to innovation and intellectual property rights and respect cultural differences and diversity. If the mankind can agree upon the direction and set our eyesight to the more spacious universe, the human brings could have a better solution for the future.