Experts pour praise on development initiatives

The 2023 Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang demonstrates the steady progress in China's opening-up policy, and development initiatives continue to benefit both the country and the rest of the world, analysts said.

Yury Tavrovsky, a professor at Moscow-based RUDN University, noted China's further opening-up in the new era has caught the attention of the international community.

Author of the book One Belt, One Road: Traveling Westward, Tavrovsky said he has paid much attention to the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, which aims to foster the common development of China and its BRI partner countries.

Azamat Seitov, a scholar at Uzbekistan's University of World Economy and Diplomacy, said Uzbekistan, one of the first countries to join the BRI, has collaborated with China in multiple major projects such as the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline and the Qamchiq Tunnel on the Angren-Pap railway line.

Syed Shujaat Ahmed, an economist at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a think tank based in Islamabad, Pakistan, noted that the BRI seeks to improve the industrial framework of partner countries and facilitate skill transfers with the help of business-to-business and business-to-client integration firms.

Agshin Aliyev, an Azerbaijani sinologist, said as China seeks to enhance regional connectivity, the two sessions, as well as the Government Work Report, show its importance not only for the Chinese people but also the world.

The report emphasizes that the government should remain firm in pursuing a strategy of opening-up for the mutual benefit of the country and the whole world as China continues to share its experience in lifting millions of people out of poverty and mitigating climate change, he said.

Iris Pang, chief economist for ING, a Dutch investment bank, said the work report shows that environmental, social and governance factors will serve as the "growth engine" of many Chinese industries.

"China's focus on green energy will benefit not only China but also multinational companies that have trading or investments in China," she said.

Anna Rosario Malindog-Uy, vice-president of external affairs for the Manila-based think tank Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies hailed China's Global Security Initiative as a framework that can maintain and sustain peace across the globe.

"What I am saying is given that we live in an ever-volatile and challenging world order, the GSI with its principles and prescriptions serves as the guiding rods, or guardrails, against instability and conflict, and the path toward peace, stability and development in Asia and beyond," she said.

She added that the GSI adheres to the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and it advocates a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum activities.

"I think all these principles are important if countries across the globe want to maintain and sustain peace."

Malindog-Uy said that as China develops further as a major economy in the world, other countries will benefit more through trade with China since it is not only a huge market but also has a substantial middle-income population with a relatively high purchasing capacity compared to other countries in the world.

"Countries will also benefit from the technology sharing and transfers from Chinese firms to other countries' business and tech firms," she said.

According to her, the more China develops as a mature economy and interacts with the world, "the more it will integrate deeply into world affairs and deepen its relations with countries across the globe, the more the world will benefit from China, more specifically on the economic front".