On the evening of November 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai via video link and delivered a speech.
He said China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities in its vast market, from its institutional opening-up and from deepened international cooperation.
The world today is confronted with accelerated changes unseen in a century as well as a sluggish economic recovery. At the critical moment, the international community should see the underlining trend to create opportunities in opening up and tackle difficult problems through cooperation.
Openness is a key driving force behind the progress of human civilizations and an intrinsic path toward global prosperity and development, Xi said, expounding on the significance of opening up for human progress.
He called on all countries to commit themselves to openness to meet development challenges, foster synergy for cooperation, build the momentum of innovation, and deliver benefits to all. He also called on all countries to steadily advance economic globalization, enhance every country's dynamism of growth, and provide all nations with greater and fairer access to the fruits of development.
China is a beneficiary of open development, as well as an important force building an open global economy. Xi, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, stressed that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up in the report he delivered to the 20th CPC National Congress. China strives to create new opportunities for the world with its own development and to contribute its share to building an open global economy that delivers greater benefits to all peoples, the report said.
As the first important international exhibition held by China after the 20th CPC National Congress, the fifth CIIE welcomes visitors from across the globe and benefits the whole world. It presents to the world China's determination to expand opening up and share development opportunities in the new era.
Five years ago, Xi announced the decision to hold the CIIE for the very purpose of expanding China's opening-up and turning its enormous market into enormous opportunities for the world.
China's door has been opening wider and wider over the past five years. The country constantly stimulated the potential for increased imports, broadened market access, fostered a world-class business environment, explored new horizons of opening-up and promoted international cooperation at multilateral and bilateral levels. It has fulfilled its commitment to opening up with concrete actions.
China will steadily expand institutional opening-up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards, to support an open economy of higher standards. It will definitely make more contributions to building an open world economy.
The CIIE creates opportunities for the whole world. As the world's first import-themed national-level expo, it is a great platform for international procurement, investment promotion, cultural exchange and open cooperation.
The exhibition has won high recognition from the international community. Many executives of transnational corporations attending the CIIE expressed their strong confidence in keeping developing in the Chinese market. They said the CIIE is a comprehensive platform sharing development opportunities, and it gathers new products, technologies, services and schemes from all over the world, demonstrates the huge potential of the Chinese market, and builds a bridge through which the world shares China’s market dividends.
China will step up efforts to cultivate a robust domestic market, upgrade trade in goods, develop new mechanisms for trade in services, and import more quality products. It will establish pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation and build national demonstration zones for innovative development of trade in services, so as to encourage innovation in trade and promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
China will engage fully and deeply in WTO's reform negotiations, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and enhance international macro-economic policy coordination, with a view to jointly fostering new drivers for global growth. It will endeavor actively to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to expand the globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas. It will firmly support other developing countries and assist them in growing faster, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
The path is unfolding before us, and a brighter future beckons beyond. The CIIE is a showcase of China's new development paradigm, a platform for high-standard opening-up, and a public good for the whole world. It will keep connecting China and the wider world and strive for win-win results through open cooperation.
Embarking on a new journey, China will always move forward by following the logic of historical progress and develop by riding the tide of development of the times.
China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, build more consensus for openness, jointly overcome the difficulties and challenges confronting global economic growth, and make sure that its commitment to openness will bring about broad prospects for global development.