Pakistan Ambassador Masood Khan addresses the 10th anniversary seminar of China.org.cn on October 12. [China.org.cn]

Honourable Mr. Wang Chen, Minister of State Council Information Office, Honourable Mr. Qian Xiaoqian, Vice Minister State Council Information Office, Honourable Zhou Mingwei, President of China International Publishing Group (CIPG). Honourable Guo Xiaoyong, Vice President CIPG, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good Afternoon,

First and foremost, I congratulate China.org.cn over its tenth anniversary. Judging by your results, you have indeed done a marvelous job.

I thank you for inviting me to speak on this occasion.

China.org.cn is my favorite website. Just by visiting this website, I remain abreast of the developments in China, in the region, and in the world. The website also has informative pages on arts, sports and travel. I like its opinion columns. What recently has attracted my attention is its Learning Chinese page. This page will help millions of people all over the world to learn and brush up their Chinese. The content of the website – China.org.cn - is substantive and its format user- friendly.

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I have learnt that every day the website receives 150 to 200 million this in nine languages. This is huge and impressive.

I want to thus convey my heartiest felicitations to the SCIO and China.org.cn leadership over this outstanding achievement.

I have a deep and fond association with the Internet and the role it plays in international communication. In 2005, as Chairman of the Committee on Internet Governance of the World Summit on Information Society, I had the privilege of meeting the best and the brightest experts in the field of Internet and Telecommunications Technology. We then steered the Committee's deliberations to a success, of course, with the help of professionals from around the world, including from China.

In our world, the Internet plays many roles. I will enumerate a few.

The Internet provides a level playing field to all citizens of local communities, villages, cities, nations, and the globe. It facilitates free flow of information.

In our times, the Internet has played an important role in reducing poverty, in creating greater awareness about social and economic issues, empowering women and children, and helping disadvantaged and marginalized segments of society.

The Internet also has created overlapping local and global networks. Because of globalization, our world has shrunk. The Internet acts as a catalyst in resolving problems that can only be addressed by consensus and by concerted efforts. This latest wave is shaping a new civilization where people together will work for a harmonious and peaceful world, by increasingly relying on this magical instrument called the Internet.

The Internet has also demolished the monopoly of the so-called conventional wisdom. Many developing countries have made progress rapidly in the past three decades. China is a shining example of that progress. The Internet therefore provides space for projecting alternative perspectives and platforms.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Pakistan and China are all-weather and time-tested friends. Our friendship is legendary. It is higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel, and sweeter than honey. The foundation for this relationship was laid by our discerning founding fathers. It is now being nurtured by the governments and the people of the two countries. In this regard, the Internet is playing a pivotal role.

The Internet helps us celebrate our successes and reach out to each other in moments of difficulty. Recently, Pakistan suffered devastation caused by massive floods. The images of people fleeing furious waters, which were devouring people, houses, bridges, roads, and crops, were flashed across the Chinese media including on hundreds of websites. This instant communication mobilized support from the Government and citizens of China for which we are extremely grateful. Now we are looking forward to the assistance that the Chinese Government would give to Pakistan for the reconstruction of the areas affected by floods to rebuild houses, schools, clinics, roads, bridges, telecommunication systems, industry and agriculture. During the floods, China.org.cn became a powerful portal for timely dissemination of information about floods in Pakistan. We are grateful for the service that they had provided.

Pakistan-China relationship is not about floods relief only. We have a strategic partnership which we would continue to use to promote peace and harmony in the region, to deepen our economic relations, and to foster people to people contacts.

Let me come back to China.org.cn.

Information revolution has already taken over China. Today China has become a cutting-edge leader in many areas of information and communications technology. Netizens are a very busy, ubiquitous, and effective community. By expressing their views on websites, blogs, forums, chat rooms, and columns, they help form a worldview for China and for our regional and global neigbourhoods.

China.org.cn represents and leads this revolutionary trend. Standing on the threshold of the 21st Century, we do not really know what China would look like in five years from now or what the world would look like in 2015. With the success of China.org.cn, we know that China is on the cusp of yet another revolution which will have its pervasive presence not just in China or its immediate neighbourhood but all over the world.

We applaud and support the efforts of China.org.cn, as it broadens its global horizons and moves to higher and more interactive planes. It has giving us new space for promoting balanced perspectives in news and views, as well cultural diplomacy.

The audience here, and many from all over the world, would join me in congratulating China.org.cn in its successes expressing their keenness to learn from their experience and expertise.

Would you join me in giving a big hand to SCIO, CIPG, China.org.cn, and China.com.cn.