President calls for new global growth and trade efforts

President Xi Jinping has called for the world to find new impetus for growth, further reinvigorate free trade and achieve better macroeconomic policy coordination.

The president's comments were made in a speech titled "Innovative growth that benefits all" at the first session of the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey.

He said all parties should pay particular attention to the communication and coordination of their policies to "avoid negative spillovers".

"For major countries that carry significant weight in the world economy, it is all the more necessary for them to take into full consideration the impact of their macroeconomic policies on others and to increase the transparency of their policymaking," Xi said.

He added that China will continue to make its own efforts toward this goal.

Elaborating on finding a new impetus for growth, Xi said there is also huge potential for upgrading traditional industries with new technologies.

"We should seize the opportunities and make innovation-driven development and cultivation of new growth points the new priorities for G20 cooperation," he said.

He called on countries to increase efforts on both supply and demand.

This year has seen progress on various free trade agreement negotiations, including the United States-led Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Xi said countries "should ensure that regional free trade arrangements serve as a useful complement to a multilateral trading regime, rather than creating new obstacles or barriers".

Following the failed World Trade Organization Doha round of negotiations, which stumbled because complex issues could not be resolved, nations are now forming regional trade blocs that are politically charged, Xinhua commented.

"We should work for balanced, meaningful and development-oriented outcomes at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference and endeavor to realize the goal of the development round as early as possible," Xi said.

The WTO conference is scheduled to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from December 15 to 18.

Zhu Jiejin, a professor at the Center for BRICS Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said the world economy still faces unstable, low and unbalanced growth.

Contact the writer at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn