China's high-level opening-up to drive global economy

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has sent a strong signal that China is committed to widening higher-level opening-up in the coming years. The congress also, for the first time, proposed to steadily widen institutional opening-up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards, and called for preserving the diversity and maintaining the stability of the international economic landscape and trade relations.

After 10 years of efforts, China has made all the required preparations and created the right atmosphere for institutional opening-up. As such, China now has a broader agenda of opening up more areas and to a larger extent.

To promote institutional opening-up, China will create a more business-friendly environment by introducing more advanced rules, regulations and standards, further shortening the negative list to allow foreign businesses to enjoy the same treatment that domestic and State-owned enterprises get, and promoting fair, green and mutually beneficial development of international trade.

The 20th Party Congress also called for accelerating China's transformation into a country trading in high-quality goods and services. This is important because China has become the main trading partner of 146 countries and regions, and has been the world's largest trading country of goods for five consecutive years.

China's international trade grew by 10.1 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of this year and 9.9 percent in the first nine months, which is a remarkable achievement given the global and domestic challenges it faces including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and some countries' threat to decouple the global industry and supply chains from China's. Therefore, this is the best time for China to intensify innovation-driven, high-quality development in order to consolidate its position as the world's leading trading nation.

First, China should make efforts to safeguard the diverse but stable international economic landscape and free and fair international trade, while firmly opposing all forms of protectionism and unilateralism.

Second, it needs to sign more free trade agreements with more economies, especially with those involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, to raise the share of Chinese zero-tariff goods in international trade.

And third, it should encourage all developing countries to come together and play a more prominent role in boosting the world economy's recovery, especially because the United States and the European Union, according to reports, are likely to go into recession due to the world energy and food crises.

Given the challenges that the global economy faces, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala recently warned against creating rival trade blocs, saying such a scenario could cost the world dearly.

And precisely because of this reason, China has urged the international community to safeguard the diverse but stable global economic landscape and trade relations. Only by doing so can all economies further strengthen the global industry and supply chains and prevent decoupling of economies.

Besides, despite the claim of some foreign politicians and media outlets that the Chinese economy is in for a shock due to a few companies shifting (or having shifted) their production units from, or ceasing operations in, China, there is no need to be alarmed. Instead, we should remember that because of the popularity of Chinese goods, such as the cold-proof goods from Yiwu, Zhejiang province, in Europe, it has become very important to deepen cooperation in international trade.

In fact, the 20th Party Congress has initiated China's high-level opening-up and paved the path for China to become a bigger and stronger trading nation, and emphasized that China's development will continue to drive the world economy and boost its recovery.

Moreover, China will make greater efforts to expedite its economic and trade development to help strengthen its modernization drive. That China is the only country to have mobilized its resources to hold an import expo every year is unprecedented in history and shows it remains committed to further opening up its economy. The China International Import Expo also shows that China is committed to sharing its development fruits with other countries so as to contribute more to the world economy.

The author is a senior counselor to the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former vice-minister of commerce. This is an excerpt from his interview with China Daily's Liu Jianna. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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