It was ten years ago, that I was privileged to be named an honorary trustee here at Beida. I remember what a great time I had in 2008, when I was here watching the Olympic table tennis semi-finals between China and South Korea.
As I’m sure you remember, China took the gold medal in every category—the men’s singles, the women’s singles, the men’s and women’s team events. That was on top of two silvers and two bronze medals. For someone who’s the big table tennis fan, that was pretty incredible to witness.
Although no one is expecting China to fill a gap in development aid from wealthy countries, it has made a very smart commitment to triple its commitment to African development. China has long understood that helping other countries lift themselves out of poverty creates a stable and secure world for people everywhere.
And by encouraging investment through innovative financing mechanisms like the China-Africa Development Fund, China is strengthening not only Africa’s economic capacity, but also, over time, markets for Chinese goods.
This is a pretty incredible time to be a young person in China. Your generation’s entrance into the workforce will coincide with your country’s rise as a center of global progress and innovation. The world’s eyes are on China, and as the generation comes of age, the world’s eyes are specifically on all of you.
When people aren’t healthy, they can’t learn in school or be productive at work. They’re unable to seize economic opportunities or do any of the things they need to lift themselves out of poverty.
The second area where I believe China can drive global progress is agriculture.? Since 1975, Chinese agricultural productivity has grown at a rate of 12 percent per year—four times the annual rate of growth in Africa.
That brings me to what I think of as China’s third opportunity: energy innovation. China already is one of the world leaders in renewable energy. And it recently announced that it will spend $360 billion on renewable power sources by 2020. This will pay off handsomely for China domestically, and as a long-term global business opportunity.
A fourth area where I know China has great potential is software. During my time at Microsoft, we were so impressed by the quality of computer scientists and developers coming out of universities here that we established one of our first research labs in Beijing almost 20 years ago.
Today, it is Microsoft’s largest research center outside the United States. It’s a phenomenal place, with 200 of the world’s top researchers and developers and more than 300 visiting scientists and fellows.
And the success of 9/9 Charity Day, started a few years ago by the Tencent, shows what is possible when people have an easy way to get involved and give back. In just three days last year, 6 million people—people like you—raised 305 million RMB in support of more than 3,600 projects. This is just one example of how philanthropy is beginning to blossom here in China.
A lot of the most successful entrepreneurs, including Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Charles Chen Yidan and Niu Gensheng, have helped create the world’s second largest pool of individual wealth. And now they’re taking some other time to get involved and start giving back.
