China will expand its high-standard opening-up and fully implement the negative list for foreign investment, President Xi Jinping said in a keynote speech via video link on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022.
Xi said the country will expand the encouraged catalog for foreign investment, improve services for promoting foreign investment and add more cities to the comprehensive pilot program for expanding the opening-up of the service sector, the China Daily reports.
No matter how the world changes, China's faith in and its commitment to reform and opening-up will not waver, he added.
Xi said the Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience, enormous potential and vast room for maneuvering, and the country's long-term economic fundamentals remain unchanged, providing great dynamism for the stability and recovery of the world economy and broader market opportunities for all countries.
Sang Baichuan, dean of the Institute of International Economy at the University of International Business and Economics, said the keynote speech showcased China's strong commitment to expanding high-level opening-up and building an open world economy.
China is expected to further open up the service sector to the rest of the world, take a more proactive approach to align with high-standard international economic and trade rules and take more steps to optimize the business environment for foreign investors.
Sang said the coming into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and China's application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership also demonstrated China's commitment to openness, which will enhance regional integration and cooperation in Asia and greatly boost the economic recovery of trade and investment.
Sang's views were echoed by Huang Yiping, deputy dean and professor of the National School of Development at Peking University, who said the Chinese economy has benefited significantly from reform and opening-up during the past few decades, and it will continue to serve as a key driving force to boost further growth.
He noted China has taken solid steps to open up its financial and service sectors to the outside world.
"As President Xi Jinping reiterated in his opening speech, China will continue to open up to the outside world at a higher level, push forward the negative list for foreign investment access… This makes AstraZeneca and other multinational companies more determined to put down roots in and cooperate with China," said Leif Johansson, chairman of multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Johansson highlighted China's rapid economic development over the past four decades of reform and opening-up, saying China has significantly increased its influence in Asia and on the international stage. "Despite the far-reaching global impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese economy is back on track and has become an important stabilizer and engine for world growth.
As the largest trading partner of many countries and regions and one of the few major economies able to maintain growth despite the pandemic, China's steady economic growth will provide people with confidence in world economic growth, he added.
"As a multinational enterprise rooted in China for about 30 years, Astra-Zeneca will continue to actively grasp opportunities brought by China's continued opening-up and constantly optimized market environment, and further expand our strategic layout in the country," he said.
Samson Khaou, executive vice-president of Dassault Systemes Asia-Pacific, said Xi's keynote speech sent a signal of peace and stability to the world and gave the French software company strong confidence.
"This has also given foreign companies, including Dassault Systemes, more determination and laid a solid foundation for our firm integration into China's economic development," Khaou said.
The fact that the Boao Forum for Asia is being held as scheduled reflected China's adherence to the concept of openness, solidarity and win-win cooperation, he said.
Citing China's 4.8 percent year-on-year growth for the first quarter of the year, Khaou said it has further demonstrated the resilience and stability of the Chinese economy. "Having been rooted in China for nearly 17 years, we have witnessed the Chinese government take action to fulfill its commitment to open up at a higher level, optimize the business environment and promote business development."
With strong confidence in the Chinese market, Dassault Systemes said it will keep investing more in China to support its customers' growing needs.
In addition to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou in Guangdong province and Chengdu in Sichuan province, the company said it will open a new office in Shenzhen to enhance its footprint and capabilities to work with industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The ongoing global supply chain crisis should be tackled by the major economies leading by example through multilateral consultation, economists and delegates attending the Boao Forum for Asia 2022 said, the Global Times reports.
Global supply chains were a highlight at the BFA 2022, as many companies have been rethinking their supply chain layouts with the fragility of existing supply chains exposed amid the global pandemic, geopolitical tensions and challenges from climate change. Some countries, such as the US, have acted to politicize and even weaponize the supply chain issue.
The discussion also comes as the epidemic situation in China's economic hub Shanghai has caused the production of many companies, including big names such as Tesla and SAIC Motor, to come to a temporary halt.
World Bank President David Malpass on Wednesday said he expects a "strong effort" by some economies in the world to reduce their dependence on Russia for energy supplies, and China for supply chains, citing overdependence.
Delegates attending the forum said that the higher level of regional integration in Asia stands as a safeguard amid the current supply chain reshuffle, because as companies choose to shorten their supply chains, they will tend to keep their supply chains in Asia.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which officially came into effect early this year and stands to boost regional trade and investment, is another positive factor.
Speaking at the BFA via a video link on Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged countries to stay committed to building an open world economy, increasing macro policy coordination, and keeping global industry and supply chains stable.
Leon Wang, executive vice president of global drug-maker AstraZeneca, told the Global Times on Thursday at the BFA that the resilient supply chain in China and its Chinese partners ensured stable production of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines supplied to the world.
As of the end of March, over 2.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines were supplied to more than 180 countries worldwide, about two-thirds of which were exported to low-income countries and regions.
The active vaccine ingredients manufactured by WuXi Biologics, one of its major suppliers of vaccines, accounts for approximately 50 percent of the company's COVAX vaccine supply.
The Asian economy, which accounts for nearly half of the world's economy on a purchasing power parity basis, is projected to grow 4.8 percent in 2022, according to a report published during the Boao Forum for Asia 2022.
The speed of integration among Asian economies has been sustained and even accelerated in some areas despite the COVID-19 pandemic, US interference and other challenges, the report said.
Xu Sitao, chief economist of Deloitte China, told the Global Times that the difficult economic situation, featuring rising inflationary pressure and stagflation risks in many countries, has actually exacerbated and consolidated the momentum of trade integration in the Asian region, in a way that acted as a hedge against the impact of surging inflation.
For supply chain security, Xu said a country can either choose to produce all products it needs, becoming very safe and at the same time very poor, or to remain committed to fully engaging with the world, but in the process taking care to put eggs in different baskets and hedging risks with diversification.
Caution should be applied in balancing supply chain security and efficiency, Xu said, warning policymakers not to go to extremes.
And, the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on global supply chains is still unfolding.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that Germany will stop importing oil from Russia at the end of the year after a meeting with her Baltic counterparts on Wednesday.
Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira, former chief economic advisor to the president of Brazil, told the Global Times on Thursday that the global supply chain crisis is a complex issue involving war, food and an energy crisis, and attempts by the US to crack down on China in the technology sphere.
The world needs the UN system, as well as other multilateral platforms such as the G20, as venues to alleviate the global supply chain crisis, Teixeira said, noting that big countries should lead by example and not care for their own interests.
The IMF this week slashed its forecast for global economic growth for 2022 by 0.8 percentage points from its January forecast to 3.6 percent, citing the shock waves from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
China's commitment to multilateralism and opening-up is reassuring to a world faced with rising security risks, academics and delegates attending the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) 2022 said on Wednesday, as the international forum amid a new round of epidemic flare-ups in several Chinese cities sends a strong positive message to the world.
The 2022 BFA was held from April 20-22 in Boao, South China's Hainan Province, with the theme of "The World in COVID-19 and Beyond: Working Together for Global Development and Shared Future."
Chinese President Xi Jinping was to attend the opening ceremony of the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia via video link and deliver a keynote speech on Thursday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday, according to the Global Times.
It will be the Chinese president's sixth address at the forum. In 2021, President Xi called on all countries in Asia and beyond to uphold multilateralism, embrace openness and enhance the Belt and Road cooperation.
Leaders from Israel, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and Laos, as well as IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva will also attend the forum virtually.
As the world is undergoing profound changes, the Omicron variant ravaging many parts of the world and the ongoing escalation of geopolitical tensions are putting world economic recovery and sustainable development at bay. Several countries were fighting to be solvent and countries in Africa are already facing grain shortages in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that the BFA reflects the common aspirations of the international community to win over the pandemic as soon as possible, jointly develop the economy and improve global economic governance.
Chen Yanjun, Director for Annual Conference with the Boao Forum for Asia, told the Global Times on Wednesday the fact that the BFA was held as scheduled in the face of the ravaging epidemic shows the confidence of the Chinese host in preventing cluster outbreaks through strict epidemic prevention measures.
"Delegates and staff attending the forum had to take nucleic acid tests three days before and every day during the forum. Closed-loop management was also conducted during the forum," Chen said.
The determination to hold this large-scale international forum despite the grim situation shows that China still hopes to make full use of this forum as a platform for communication and exchanges, and provide an opportunity for political and business dialogue in Asia and the world to discuss how to strengthen international cooperation and promote global development in the post-epidemic era, Chen said.
Leon Wang, executive vice president of global drug maker AstraZeneca, told the Global Times at the forum that it also demonstrated China's firm resolve to expand reform and opening-up and great sense of responsibility through the continued promotion of international economic exchanges and cooperation.
Cao Li, Vice President of the Research Institute of BFA, told the Global Times on Wednesday that against the backdrop of the global epidemic and the complex international situation, Asian cooperation for global development has become a stabilizer of multilateralism and a ballast stone for global economic development.
"Asia accounts for almost half of the world's economic output and its economic growth is also faster than the rest of the world. With the advancement of regional integration, the Asian economy will play a more important role in global stability," Cao said.
Guo Yanjun, Director of the Institute of Asian Studies at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, said the forum also shows the importance China attaches to neighborhood diplomacy.
"China has been vigorously advocating the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and China's neighboring regions, especially the Asian community of shared future, are a pilot area for China to promote the idea. It is also a crucial region for China to achieve peaceful development and promote the implementation of major initiatives and strategies," Guo told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Through the forum, China can better explain the country's foreign policy and diplomatic philosophy, and put forward some Chinese plans and wisdom for promoting the world's economic development cooperation, the expert said.
Facing unprecedented challenges in terms of the pandemic and international changes, experts and academics said the forum was endowed with a new responsibility in advocating China's new concept for Asian security that emphasizes a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable approach.
"There are two main forces in the game on global security. The first is to maintain its own security as the core, to achieve its own security regardless of the security of other countries, even if it sacrifices the security of other countries. On the other side is the new security concept advocated by China, which is supported by most countries as the concept represents new thinking that rejects any Cold War mentality," Guo said.
Amid the global security turmoil, the forum was given a new responsibility to help China advocate its new security concept, promote the world's security to a right track and safeguard global stability, Guo said.
Liu Qing, vice president at the China Institute of International Studies, said although the world is facing new security threats such as geopolitics games, food security and a refugee crisis, some Western countries led by the US are still aiming to seek absolute security, draw water to its own mill, engage in clique politics and hype great power confrontation.
"Against the backdrop of spillovers of security issues, the new security concept advocated by China is very important. The forum is a powerful platform to convey that China has always been practicing multilateral cooperation, de-escalation, neighborhood cooperation," Liu said.
Zheng Yongnian, a professor of political science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), told the Global Times at the forum that the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US-led Western sanctions on Russia have many security implications.
In addition to the proliferation of weapons and even nuclear weapons, the energy and food crisis were emerging, and a more serious harm that China should pay special attention to is some countries' efforts to dismantle the global trade system, which took many years and global efforts to reach its current status and is now at the receiving end of wanton weaponization of trade.
Issues such as the Western sanctions against Russia, not just against the country but also the Russian people, and the various challenges exposed in different aspects of national security deserve China's attention and careful thinking, Zheng said.
China's strength lies in the resilience of its supply chain, Zheng said, albeit such strength mostly exists in the lower- and middle-end of the global value chain. China is more integrated into the global economic system after four decades of reform and opening-up, the professor said.
Since the pandemic, many companies have been rethinking their supply chains amid the fragility exposed under the global pandemic and climate change. Some countries, such as the US, also acted to politicize and weaponize the supply chain issue.
Experts attending the forum said the higher-level of regional integration in Asia stands as a safeguard amid the current supply chain reshuffle, as companies choose to shorten their supply chain, but they still tend to keep their supply chain in Asia.
Over 600 delegates from 42 countries and regions were attending BFA 2022 despite the recent epidemic flare-ups in several Chinese cities including the economic hub Shanghai. Some 700 reporters from 102 media outlets were attending.
The speed of integration among Asian economies has been sustained and even accelerated in some areas despite the COVID-19 pandemic, US interference and other challenges, according to a report published Forum.
The accelerating trend should continue in the next few years with China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) being two major promoters of regional integration, experts noted, while warning risks arising from external factors such as the US' attempt to sow chaos in the region.
According to the report, the pace of economic integration in Asia has been "sustained," as shown by statistics in multiple regions. For example, intra-regional trade in the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 58.5 percent of the total regional trade in 2020, the highest share since 1990, the report said.
In this context, the export dependency on Asia for Asian economies reached new high since 2012, while the degree of trade dependence among Asian economies also remained high, the report said.
The report noted that factory integration in Asia picked up after the COVID-19 outbreak, while Asia's direct investment self-dependence rate surged to about 65 percent in 2020, showing that many Asian countries are still dependent on their neighbors for investment.
Trade deals that pushed the region's integration also saw great progress. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) officially came into effect this year, marking the launch of the world's largest free trade area.
Asia's intensifying integration came despite the rising anti-globalization and protectionism initiated by the US in recent years, which analysts said casts the biggest shadow over Asian economic cooperation, and it's important that Asia stays focused without being distracted by external interference.
"The two wheels of globalization are spinning at different speeds. Regionalization is strengthening, and multilateralism is weakening. It's important that the two wheels don't contradict with each other, and it's better if they can complement each other," Zhang Yuyan, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Gu Xiaosong, dean of the ASEAN Research Institute of Hainan Tropical Ocean University, told the Global Times that enhanced cooperation in the region might have been fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, which left other regions in the world under more severe influence from the virus while Asia was relatively stable and able to carry on business.
It has also been spurred by geographic advantages, as it's easier for Asian economies to ship products to their neighbors, particularly after the establishment of more and more connecting infrastructure facilities like the China-Laos Railway, he said.
"China and ASEAN are surely two 'forces of gravity' behind the region's cooperation. In particular, China proposes the idea of integration, and ASEAN is like a driver who helps coordinate the economies involved and push the concept into reality," Gu said.
However, experts also warned that Asia's integration might be challenged by external factors, including the Ukraine crisis and the US' efforts to isolate China from other economies.
Singaporean scholar Kishore Mahbubani said on Wednesday that in the current complex global situation, there are two competing visions of the Indo-Pacific region, one dominated by the US that tries to leave China out of the region and one led by the RCEP that has China in the system.
"The future lies in building these two visions together," he said at the Boao Forum.
Gu nevertheless predicted that the trend of Asian integration will go further, as many countries have already seen the benefits of such an initiative, and as infrastructure continues to be built that facilitates Asian economies' interaction.
The China-Laos Railway, for example, might be extended to Thailand or even to Malaysia and Singapore in the next few years, which will largely boost trade among those economies, he said.
By Ouyang Shijia and Ma Zhiping on April 22 for the China Daily, Chu Daye, Zhao Juecheng in Boao and Cao Siqi on April 21 2022 for the Global Times (China).
