Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan delivers speech in Davos

-On the process of economic globalization

Wang pointed out that the economic globalization, which gained rapid ground in the last century, was started by Western developed countries, or the Mediterranean civilization.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, technological advances have significantly reduced the geographical distance and other barriers to exchanges among countries and accelerated the economic globalization process. Emerging economies have risen. As a result, economic globalization has reached a new stage as we now know.

Western multinational corporations and financial institutions are the main drivers of economic globalization. As they seek maximum profit in their operations, they allocate resources to countries with low-cost production factors and sound business environment when building global industrial chains. In this process, China has moved up from the low end to the medium and high end of the global industrial chain. The nearly 1.4 billion Chinese who are enjoying greater prosperity have unleashed huge demand backed by purchasing power. And this has unlocked enormous market potential that no one can afford to ignore.

-Development imbalances need to be resolved through further development

Wang pointed out that we must take a targeted approach to address the problems that have emerged in the process of economic globalization.

Development imbalances need to be resolved through further development. Countries need to press ahead with structural reform, strike a right balance between equity and efficiency, adopt effective policy measures to prevent the worsening of income inequality and fend off the impact on some regions and industries caused by new technologies and market competition so that all people stand to gain from continued development.

What we need to do is make the pie bigger while looking for ways to share it in a more equitable way. The last thing we should do is to stop making the pie and just engage in a futile debate on how to divide it. Shifting blame for one's own problems onto others will not resolve the problems.