Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, addresses the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Oct 23, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
HONG KONG – China’s commitment to deepening reform and opening-up is expected to support global economic recovery and benefit the global community, as the world’s second-biggest economy is a key trading partner and huge export market for many countries.
Analysts and industry executives praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s remarks following the just-concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that Beijing will “open its door ever wider” and that the nation will be steadfast in deepening reform and opening up across the board and in pursuing high-quality development.
They said China’s opening-up will “benefit the wider international community”.
“China is the second-largest economy (and) it is the biggest, (most) viable and attractive market in the world,” said Anna Malindog-Uy, vice-president for external affairs at the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, or ACPh.
In a presentation at an online forum on Oct 24 on the global impact of CPC’s 20th National Congress, Malindog-Uy said China is a major trading partner of over 100 countries, has established free trade pilot zones and has signed many important free trade agreements including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP — known as the world’s biggest free trade pact.
This why China’s “continued economic development will benefit the wider international community,” she said.
Malindog-Uy said that apart from being an important trade partner, China can also help developing countries in terms of technology transfer.
Zou Yonggang, CEO of Jiangsu Overseas Cooperation and Investment, said the move toward high-level opening up and high-quality cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative “has given a new impetus to our ambition” to develop the China-United Arab Emirates Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone (ICCDZ) into a model project of BRI cooperation between China and the UAE.
Just as China cannot develop in isolation from the world, the world needs China for its development.
Xi Jinping, President, China
“The UAE’s economic diversification plan is highly consistent with China’s high-level opening up and development policy reaffirmed in the report (presented to the CPC Congress). I believe there will be more and more Chinese companies coming to the UAE in years to come,” Zou said.
The industrial zone has attracted attention as an important cooperation project between China and the United Arab Emirates under the China-proposed BRI.
Xi, general secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, said in an Oct 23 meeting with the press that a prosperous China will create more opportunities for the world.
“Just as China cannot develop in isolation from the world, the world needs China for its development,” he said in a speech delivered at the Great Hall of the People to the media.
Xi said that through over 40 years of “relentless reform and opening up”, China has created the “twin miracles of fast economic growth and long-term social stability”.
According to the World Bank, since China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged over 9 percent a year, and more than 800 million people have lifted themselves out of poverty.
The Washington-based lender has noted that China is an upper-middle-income economy and has made significant improvements in access to health, education, and other services in the past 40 years.
China’s rapid growth has not only influenced its domestic market but the global economy as well. Herman Laurel, ACPh’s president, said that whatever China envisions now will impact the world, noting China’s contribution to the global economy.
“China presents a new model for leap-frogging economic development for emerging economies like the Philippines,” Laurel said.
Mustafa Hyder Sayed, executive director at the Pakistan-China Institute, said Xi demonstrates “strategic clarity in terms of China’s rightful place in the world and how China will move toward achieving its rightful place in the world”.
“And we see a more confident, a more assertive President Xi who can now determine the next decade of China’s trajectory as a big power that is responsible, that is also interested in sharing the dividends of its development with its global and international partner countries,” Sayed said.
Contact the writers at prime@chinadailyapac.com