Opening-up expands space for global economic growth
By People’s Daily
Adhering to building an open world economy is an important experience of the G20 in coping with the international financial crisis, as well as an inevitable requirement for advancing world economic development.
China is an advocator and promoter of an open world economy. It insists on opening the door for development, vigorously facilitating free trade, and fully fulfilling its WTO commitments. As Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed, China’s open door will not be closed — it will only be opened wider.
Actions speak louder than words. From jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to establishing pilot free trade zones, and from exploring the development of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics, to successfully hosting the first China International Import Expo and actively preparing for the second one, China has continuously expanded opening up.
To date, the country has become the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries and regions, and contributed more than 30% to the world economic growth for many years in a row.
China will expand market access for foreign investment in more areas, intensify efforts to enhance international cooperation in intellectual property protection, increase the import of goods and services on an even larger scale, more effectively engage in international macro-economic policy coordination and work harder to ensure the implementation of opening-up related policies.
The above reform and opening-up measures announced by Xi at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation demonstrated China’s determination to further expand opening-up.
The G20 is a major forum for international economic cooperation. At present, unilateralism and protectionism have seriously impacted the international economic order, and the risks and uncertainties facing the world economy have risen markedly.
In April, the WTO revised its global growth forecast for 2019 down from 3.7 percent to 2.6 percent. International organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also expressed that the world economy is in a “subtle moment”, as uncertainties such as the escalation of trade friction are mounting, and global trade is under pressure.
At previous G20 summits, Xi has reiterated the significance of opposing protectionism and unilateralism and jointly safeguarding the multilateral trading system.
China supports an open, transparent, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, promotes trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and will make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.
With the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, the G20 Hangzhou summit, which called for the building of an open world economy, is of important practical significance, said George N. Tzogopoulos, director of EU-China Programs at the Centre International de Formation Europeenne (CIFE).
Openness and cooperation is an important magic weapon to promote economic growth, and adhering to multilateralism and building an open world economy is an important task that the international community should focus on, he added.
Economic globalization is an inevitable and irreversible trend.
As the world’s second largest economy and the largest trader of goods, China has effectively integrated into the world while opening up. It has welcomed more countries to board the express train of its economic development, consolidated the foundation of global economic stability and injected impetus into global economic growth, said Hsia Hua Sheng, a professor at Brazil’s largest think-tank, the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV).
