Chinese premier calls for enhancing cooperation to promote steady world economic recovery

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday called for enhancing unity and cooperation to jointly drive steady recovery of the world economy.

"Cooperation among all should be enhanced to promote the steady recovery of the world economy and early victory over COVID-19," Li said while holding the sixth "1+6" Roundtable in Beijing via video link with heads of major international economic organizations.

President of the World Bank Group David Malpass, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the International Labour Organization Guy Ryder, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Mathias Cormann, and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board Klaas Knot attended the virtual meeting.

Li noted that the world economy has maintained the momentum of recovery on the whole. However, the impetus of recovery has somewhat diminished, and destabilizing factors and uncertainties have increased. It still needs time before growth can return to normal.

Efforts should be accelerated to shore up weak links in supply, advance the recovery of production capacity in an orderly manner, smooth international freight transportation and maintain the security and stability of the industrial and supply chains, he said.

Li called on major economies to strengthen coordination on macro policies and jointly safeguard the steady functioning of the international economic and financial systems.

Stressing that China's economic development enjoys strong resilience and solid underpinning, Li said that China has the ability to fulfill the main targets and tasks set for the year and achieve steady development for the long run.

"As China's economy has been deeply integrated into the world economy, China will open its door still wider," he said, vowing to expand high-level opening-up and share new opportunities of its development with the rest of the world.

Noting that openness is a sure path for the prosperity and progress of human society, Li said it is imperative to firmly uphold the WTO-centered multilateral trading system and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

The heads of major international economic organizations spoke positively of the steady development of the Chinese economy against the impact of the pandemic and its positive spillovers to the world economic recovery, and expressed appreciation of China's important contributions to supporting developing countries in fighting COVID-19.

They noted that faced with the impact of the pandemic and growing imbalance in the economic development among countries, all parties need to join hands to fight the pandemic, advance fair vaccine distribution and pave the way for the post-COVID recovery.

They called for greater efforts to strengthen global coordination on macro-economic policies, ensure stability of the industrial and supply chains, promote a green and low-carbon transition, push forward the reform of global economic governance, and effectively tackle global challenges including climate change and development divergence.

They expressed readiness to step up coordination and cooperation with China to jointly promote strong, inclusive and sustainable growth of the world economy.

When meeting with the press after the Roundtable, Li said they agreed that the world economic recovery has shown divergence and fighting COVID-19 remains the current pressing task.

"It is important to promote fair and equitable vaccine distribution and enhance the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries, to create conditions for sustained and steady recovery of the world economy," he said.

China supports the IDA (International Development Association) replenishment negotiations and the IMF's debt service suspension under the G20 framework, and has participated in relevant discussions and negotiations at the WTO with an active and open attitude, he said.

"We are ready to deepen cooperation with the international organizations on climate response, green development, public health, financial stability, job promotion and other aspects," he said.