Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO, delivers lecture at Chongqing University

On the afternoon of Sept. 10, 2010, the 26th Teachers' Day, Mr. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, accompanied by Shu Lichun, deputy director of Chongqing Education Commission, Zhang Xijian, deputy director of Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission and so on, came to the multi-functional room on the 3rd floor of the main teaching building in Chongqing University and gave a wonderful lecture on WTO and Open World Trade for nearly a thousand persons including teachers and students from our university and other local universities and also representatives from foreign enterprises in Chongqing. Li Xiaohong, president of Chongqing University, presided over the lecture by himself, and Secretary Ou Keping and Executive Deputy Secretary Chen Demin were also present.

Mr. Pascal Lamy, born in Paris, France in Apr. 1947, once was consultant to Jacques Delors, minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of France from 1981 to 1983, and deputy director of the Office of President Pierre Mauroy from 1983 to 1984, and director of the Office of Delors (chairman of the European Commission) from 1985 to 1990. As president of Credit Lyonnais from 1994 to 1999, Pascal Lamy made plans for the privatization of this bank. Then he assumed the post of EU trade member in 1999-2004, and in 2005 he was appointed director-general of the WTO and won the re-election in 2009.

This time Mr. Lamy was invited by Bo Xilai, Secretary of CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, to take part in the World Export Development Forum. Secretary Bo also advised Mr. Lamy to give a lecture for sharing his rich experiences and opinions with teachers and students of colleges and universities in Chongqing, and recommended Chongqing University as the undertaker. Besides teachers and students of Chongqing University present, there were part of teachers and students from Southwest University, Southwest University of Political Science & Law, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing Normal University and Sichuan International Studies University. Mr. Lamy explained in simple items the basic theory of economics, the international economic reality, the international trade and law and the history of the human trade. As director-general of the WTO, he especially explained how WTO served its member countries on the basis of fairness and transparence in international market where free trade barriers still existed. Taking China as an example, he also stated features, advantages and disadvantages of the closed economy and the open economy. Moreover, he put positive and optimistic words on the opening-up and the development of Chinese economy and the efforts China made to transform from a world manufacturing center to a world design center and to deal with environmental issues.

Influenced by the enthusiastic atmosphere, Mr. Lamy temporarily canceled the next arrangement and extended the lecture time of half an hour decided originally to nearly one hour. At the same time, to exchange more with young students, he reserved enough time for interaction with them. Questions the students asked involved many aspects, such as the role of the WTO in protecting world trade, the influence of the joint military exercise between USA and South Korea on the world trade, how China made use of the positive part of the WTO during the economic transition, etc. And Mr. Lamy answered them one by one, which were very practical and to the point. Humorous or sharp questions from the students as well as their fluent English all deeply impressed Mr. Lamy. The one-hour question time passed quickly but both sides still couldn t stop. The atmosphere was really very enthusiastic. After the lecture, President Li Xiaohong on behalf of the university and the audience showed thanks to Mr. Lamy and presented to him the sculpture designed by teachers of the Academy of Arts of our university.