"An Open China is Full of Hope" (Overseas Concern)

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

The international community focuses on the Chinese government's work report

"An Open China is Full of Hope" (Overseas Concern)

Figure (1): People visit the telecommunications, computer and information services exhibition hall in the Shougang Park exhibition area of CIFTIS 2022.

Photo by Du Jianpo (People's Vision)

Photo (2): To celebrate the Kenya National Theatre's official accession to the Silk Road International Theatre Alliance, the Kenya Cultural Centre hosted a cultural evening themed "Chinese Night".

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Dong Jianghui

Bottom map: On March 7, in the terminal operation area of Jiangsu Lianyungang Oriental Company, a ro-ro ship prepares to berth at the terminal to load export vehicles.

Wang Chun (People's Vision)

Openness is a distinctive mark of contemporary China. The government work report pointed out that over the past five years, China has firmly expanded its opening up and deepened mutually beneficial and win-win international economic and trade cooperation. In the face of changes in the external environment, we should implement a more proactive opening up strategy and promote reform and development with high-level opening-up.

In the past few days, the international community has been keenly concerned about the positive signals released by the Chinese government's work report and highly appraised China's achievements in opening up to the outside world. In an interview with this reporter, a number of international people said that an open China is a global blessing, and they look forward to witnessing the pace of China's opening up and sharing China's development opportunities.

"China's economic miracle is inseparable from opening up"

"The total import and export volume of goods increased by 8.6% per year, exceeding 40 trillion yuan, ranking first in the world for many consecutive years, attracting foreign capital and foreign investment in the forefront of the world", "21 pilot free trade zones have been set up, and the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port has been steadily advancing", "6 new free trade agreements have been signed and upgraded, and the proportion of import and export volume of goods with free trade partners has increased from 26% to about 35%"... The government work report contains a series of bright data, recording the fruitful results of China's opening up in the past five years.

"In this year's China's government work report, I found that China is 'subtracting' in import and export costs and 'adding' in improving the quality of imports and exports. These are all practical measures for China to expand opening up to the outside world and promote the stability and quality of imports and exports. "Through the introduction of the implementation regulations of the Foreign Investment Law, the foreign investment environment has been continuously optimized, and the market access for foreign investment has been continuously relaxed, China's foreign exchange services have become more thoughtful, customs clearance of goods is more convenient, investment attraction efforts are greater, and the Chinese market is more attractive to foreign investors." ”

"China's economic miracle is inseparable from opening up." In China for more than 40 years, Abdul Darakuti, Executive Director of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, is deeply impressed by the changes in China's economic and social development, "The policy of stabilizing foreign trade, stabilizing foreign investment and stabilizing investment is of positive significance, which has effectively promoted the growth of China's imports and exports and attracted a large number of foreign enterprises to invest in China." More importantly, China has ensured that these policies are implemented over the long term. ”

"In recent years, China has implemented a more proactive opening up strategy, achieved development achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, and injected impetus into the world economy." David Batuozhi, a German expert and distinguished researcher at the Institute of Globalization and Cultural Development Strategy of Beijing Normal University Zhuhai Campus, said.

The US Consumer News and Business Channel website quoted UBS as reporting that China's supply chain has shown strong resilience, and international institutions have recently raised China's economic growth forecasts for 2023.

Professor Lin Dae-geun of the Department of Talent Integration at the University of Foreign Chinese in Korea said that in the past year, China overcame the impact of the epidemic and other factors, and there were frequent bright spots in foreign economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. At present, China is actively promoting high-level opening up, which is expected to further strengthen China's ties with the world.

Zemir Awan, founding chairman of the Global Silk Road Research Alliance, a Pakistani think tank, believes that China's unswerving expansion of opening up has not only improved the living standards of Chinese people, but also created opportunities for many multinational enterprises to invest in China. It is believed that China will continue to expand its opening up and continuously promote the improvement of the quality and level of opening up.

"Making development gains available to the world"

The government work report pointed out that in the past five years, "firmly expand opening up to the outside world, deepen mutually beneficial and win-win international economic and trade cooperation", "firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system and oppose trade protectionism", "actively expand global partnership, and strive to build an open world economy"... China's pragmatic measures to expand opening up have been highly praised by the international community.

"By opening wider to the world, China will develop itself and benefit the world." Robert Walker, an academician of the British Academy of Social Sciences, said that since joining the World Trade Organization, China has developed into the world's second largest economy, the largest trade in goods, and the largest foreign investment attraction. China's expanded opening up is important to the growth of global wealth. In the past decade, China's total economic output has increased from 11.4% to more than 18% of the global economy, contributing about 30% to global economic growth every year.

"The Chinese government work report embodies the concept of open and shared development and brings new hope for global sustainable development." Pedro Wadels, director of the China-Cuba Joint Laboratory of Neurotechnology Transformation Frontier Research at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, said that in the face of the complex and changeable international situation, China has firmly expanded its opening up, achieved stable economic operation, and also become a "stabilizer" for global economic recovery, helping the world to prosper and develop.

Over the past five years, China has promoted high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. Adhering to consultation, joint construction and sharing, following market principles and international rules, implementing a number of interconnection and production capacity cooperation projects, the import and export volume of goods to countries along the Belt and Road increased by an average of 13.4% per year, and exchanges and cooperation in various fields continued to deepen. China's high-level opening up has brought more tangible benefits.

"China's opening-up policy is a true win-win cooperation, and the whole world is a beneficiary." Zemir Awan said China is an inspiration to developing countries. Through the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative and the construction of international economic and trade cooperation platforms such as the Expo, the Consumer Expo, and the Service Trade Fair, China and other countries in the world will share the dividends of development. Pakistan is an important participant in the Belt and Road Initiative and has benefited greatly from the country's infrastructure connectivity and improved living conditions.

Lao Ambassador to China Kampao Ntawan, who was invited to observe the opening meeting of the Chinese Two Sessions, said that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative has transformed Laos from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country", realizing regional connectivity and mutual benefit. The Lao-China Railway provides Lao people with travel convenience and security, and is a real road of development and friendship.

"By jointly building the Belt and Road, China will share its development experience with the rest of the world and make the fruits of development benefit the world." Pedro Wadels said that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative will help the infrastructure construction of countries and regions along the route and open up new space for global trade and investment growth. The Belt and Road Initiative will solidly promote infrastructure connectivity and continue to help countries along the Belt and Road improve their own technological and industrialization levels.

"Sharing the Endless Development Dividends"

"Greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital", "expand market access, increase the opening up of the modern service industry", "import and export promote stability and quality, and the balance of international payments is basically balanced"... The priorities and main expected goals for this year put forward in the government work report demonstrate China's determination to promote a higher level of opening up.

Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government work report emphasizes comprehensively deepening reform and opening up and vigorously boosting market confidence.

"An open China is full of hope." Robert Walker said that Chinese accounts for nearly 1/5 of the world's total population, and with the further improvement of social labor productivity, China's economic growth space is very considerable. China's gross domestic product is expected to grow by about 5 percent this year, and that alone will boost global growth.

"China's development is inseparable from the world, and the world's prosperity also needs China." As a manufacturing country and a country with a large population, China is an important engine of global economic growth, and China's expansion of opening up is of great benefit to human development. David Batuo said that China's high-level opening up will also contribute Chinese wisdom to global sustainable development issues such as environmental protection and food security.

"China's economy has entered a stage of high-quality development. China promotes coordinated regional development and new-type urbanization, promotes the green transformation of development methods, vigorously develops the digital economy, and provides new development opportunities for enterprises deeply rooted in the Chinese market. Gu Lei, chief impact officer of McDonald's China, said that the Chinese market has deep potential, and overseas enterprises should accelerate localized management, fully assume social responsibilities, promote digital transformation and green development of enterprises, and integrate into the tide of China's high-quality development.

Hu Yishan said that at a time when the external environment is still uncertain, China's implementation of a more proactive opening up strategy is a major benefit to world economic recovery. "I believe that China's firm expansion of opening up will encourage more and more foreign investors to invest in China and share the endless development dividends."

"The Chinese market still maintains its amazing charm, and many foreign companies want to come to this 'treasure land' to open up development space." "I firmly believe that China will continue to expand its high-level opening-up, adhere to the correct direction of economic globalization, and join hands with other countries to inject new momentum into global economic growth," said Abdul Darakuti." ”

People's Daily Overseas Edition (Version 08, 09 March 2023)