Higher-level opening-up key to China's future development: Experts

China's higher-level opening-up is an essential choice it makes for its future development when it strives to shape the new development paradigm of "dual circulation" and will offer more opportunities to the rest of the world for shared growth, experts and scholars said.

Speaking on Saturday at the opening of the 86th International Forum on China Reform held in Haikou, Hainan province, Xie Fuzhan, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said building the new development paradigm, with the domestic market as the mainstay while domestic and international markets reinforce each other, calls for consistent reform and all-around opening-up.

While improving the business environment, Xie called for leveling the field so that domestic circulation with higher efficiency will help attract global production factors and resources.

Higher-level opening-up is essential for building the new development paradigm, he said, calling for continued efforts to advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, build a higher-level open economy, and leverage the strength of the vast domestic market to promote robust, balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth of the world economy.

The forum, themed "High-Level Opening-up China and the World", was attended by around 600 Chinese and international scholars and experts with some of them joining discussions online. It was jointly organized by China Institute for Reform and Development, Bank of China, China Daily and China Public Diplomacy Association.

In a video speech delivered to the forum, Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations and currently chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, said China's high-level opening-up has great relevance to promoting economic globalization.

Ban said that through opening-up, China plays a significant part in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It also helps the global economy recover from recessions due to the pandemic, safeguard multilateralism and promote free trade, he added.

Shen Danyang, vice-governor of Hainan province, said the province is striving to implement the national strategy of building the free trade port in the island and make Hainan a pacesetter for the country's all-around opening-up.

To this end, Hainan has taken steps to promote liberalization and facilitation of trade, investment, cross-border capital, human resources and transportation and ensure safe and orderly data flows, Shen said, adding it has also unveiled competitive taxation policies and strives to build a world-class business environment.

In a written speech delivered to the forum, Bank of China Chairman Liu Liange described the building of the new development paradigm as China's strategic choice.

Through the new development paradigm, China will create new impetus for win-win cooperation by spurring domestic demand, shape the new structure of international competition through innovation-driven development, and expand international cooperation through all-around opening-up, Liu said.

Addressing the forum, Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, called for efforts to explain the "development logic" of China on its new journey toward a modernized country.

The logic is proposed based on the reality that China has entered the new development stage, and calls for efforts to implement the new development philosophy and build the new development paradigm, Zhou added.

Wu Hailong, chairman of China Public Diplomacy Association, called for institutional opening-up in terms of rules, regulations and standards while advancing the higher-level opening-up in order to better participate in international cooperation and competition.

He also underlined the need to uphold the international system with the UN at the center, safeguard multilateralism and oppose unilateralism, and promote trade and investment liberalization.

The opening-up of China's services market and accelerating the growth of trade in services will be the key to unleashing the potential for China's consumer spending in the next five years and beyond, said Chi Fulin, president of China Institute for Reform and Development.

Noting that trade in services is on course to become the prioritized area for China's economic upgrading and transformation, Chi said that China's efforts to develop trade in services not only complies with its domestic consumption demand but also creates enormous potential for win-win cooperation with other countries and regions, which will also provide an important impetus for advancing bilateral and multilateral free trade.