Director-General of China Radio International Wang Gengnian delivers a New Year speech to CRI's overseas listeners and audience in Beijing, capital of China on Tuesday, January 1, 2013. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

 

Dear listeners, audience and netizens:
 
The year of 2013 is coming around the corner, and on behalf of the staff of China Radio International and myself, I'd like to express my greetings and best wishes at this great moment to celebrate the coming year. I wish all my friends a happy new year, and a life of prosperity and good health.

Not long ago we covered in depth the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 61 languages. This congress is an important event for China's modernization and the political life of Chinese people. It leads us into the future and enhances the confidence of China's development. In the modern world, confidence is even more precious. During the dark time of the global financial debt crisis, only confidence could steer us to find the light of economic recovery; after severe earthquake and hurricane disasters, only confidence could let us rebuild our home from the ruins; and only confidence could help safeguard peace under the regional tension brought about by the Cold War and hegemony. To be confident, the year 2012 was not the end of the world but the beginning of the future.

The theme of CRI's work in 2012 was to communicate confidence, promote cooperation and strengthen friendships. We made many efforts and much progress in this area. In 2012, our efforts were mainly focused on increasing the capacity of international communication. We made large changes in our communication concepts, reformed our working mechanism and improved our media awareness and service. We spared no efforts to promote the development of overseas media outlets. Not only have we established stations overseas, we also strive to localize our radio content according to our audiences' demands and to cater to their taste and style. Also, we spared no efforts to modernize and diversify the forms of media in order to provide better and more convenient information service. Of course, all our efforts can be reflected on the improvements of the programs, through listener surveys and on the answers and responses to the questions from our audiences.

Dear friends, communication enhances understanding and information creates values. Nowadays the world is "a global village." The world is becoming smaller, but it is not flat: the gaps between countries and regions are often still large. History will not be unchangeable and diverse choices will replace extreme hegemony according to different national conditions. We believe, differences should not be the reason for conflict, but that opposition is probably the result of prejudice. So, we are passionate and feel a large responsibility for our involvement in international communication. CRI will continue to make efforts to enhance understanding and friendship between China and the rest of the world.

We hope that our friendship will last forever and wish a happy life to all our listeners and friends around the world in the year 2013! Thank you.