Yearender: China's higher-level opening-up adds new impetus to world economic recovery

Tourists admire the skyline view of Lujiazui area at the Bund in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 6, 2020.(Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

China's overall tariff rate has been cut from 15.3 percent to 7.4 percent, lower than the 9.8 percent accession commitment; The central government of China has reviewed and revised over 2,300 pieces of laws and regulations, and local governments, over 190,000 pieces, which helped unleash market and social vitality... At the Fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE), China released its score card in the past 20 years since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was commended by the international community.

At a new starting point, China is actively promoting the building of an open world economy. By rolling out a series of new initiatives for wider opening-up to share development opportunities with the world, China injects fresh impetus into world economic development.

-- Fully implement WTO commitments

Since its entry into the WTO in 2001, China has fully implemented its commitments, actively pushed forward the common construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and participated in the reform of the WTO.

Since the inception of the BRI eight years ago, China has signed over 200 documents on Belt and Road cooperation with 145 countries and 32 international organizations, covering a broad range of fields such as connectivity, investment, trade, finance, science and technology, society, humanities, quality of life, and marine issues.

As the flagship of the BRI, China-Europe freight trains have made a total of over 40,000 trips, reaching 168 cities in 23 countries.

China's circle of free trade grows bigger. In recent years, China has accelerated its construction of free trade zones, and it has successively signed free trade agreements with countries such as Iceland, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Georgia, Maldives, Mauritius, and Cambodia.

With the active promotion by China and other partners, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) was officially signed in November 2020, and the negotiations on the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment were completed on time over a month later. Recently, China has formally applied for joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA).

In this process, China has also made its own progress. Over the last 20 years, China's economic size has grown from the 6th to the 2nd largest in the world, trade in goods from the 6th to the 1st, and trade in services from the 11th to the 2nd. China has led developing countries in utilized foreign investment, and its outbound direct investment has risen from the 26th to the 1st.

-- Pursue higher-level opening-up at a new starting point

At a new starting point, China is accelerating its steps to pursue high-level opening-up.

At the opening ceremony of the CIIE in 2021, China announced a number of new initiatives to open the country wider. For instance, China will take an active and open attitude in negotiations on issues such as the digital economy, trade and the environment, industrial subsidies and state-owned enterprises, uphold the position of the multilateral trading regime as the main channel for international rules-setting, and safeguard the stability of global industrial and supply chains; China will further shorten the negative list for foreign investment, and expand the opening of telecommunication, healthcare and other services in an orderly fashion; China will deeply engage in international cooperation on green and low-carbon development and the digital economy, and work actively for joining the CPTPP and the DEPA.

At the parallel session on Financial Cooperation and Opening-Up in Regional Economic Integration of the fourth Hongqiao International Economic Forum, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan said, China is stepping up efforts to foster a new development paradigm, during which China is committed to opening wider to the outside world and building a new system of open economy of higher standards from four aspects: first, significantly expand market access; second, improve the layout of pilot free trade zones; third, continuously improve business environment; fourth, deepen outbound investment and international cooperation.

"In the future, China will pursue high-level opening-up, actively advance regional economic integration, create more demand for the region and the world at large, and provide a vaster market and more opportunities for other countries, pushing for an economic globalization that is more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all," said Wang Bingnan.

-- Visible spill-over effects and sharing of development opportunities for the world

The huge Chinese market points to a potential that is simply unlimited. In 2020, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 39.2 trillion yuan, and the value of imports totaled 14.3 trillion yuan, accounting for 11.5 percent of the global total.

In the future, China will further tap into its domestic demand, and stimulate the creation of a robust domestic market, sharing development opportunities with the world. As said by Ma Jiantang, Party Secretary and Research Fellow of Development Research Center of the State Council, China will gather global quality factors and resources through high-level opening-up, and constantly increase its competitiveness and better promote reform, development and rejuvenation through comparing with and learning from the other countries. China is also actively joining the CPTPP and DEPA, and aligning with international high standards, ensuring that markets are interconnected, industries are integrated, innovation is promoted, and rules are reconciled, and delivering a virtuous cycle of China's economy at a higher level.

In addition, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China led the world in the 5G field, and impressed the world in the fields such as e-commerce, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, bike sharing, and Internet of Things. China's technological innovation created a large number of jobs for the world.

According to the survey conducted by the CCTV and China International Publishing Group in 2017, of the 10,000 online questionnaires, 30 percent of foreign respondents held that they could obtain jobs from Chinese enterprises. 102 state-owned enterprises created 330,000 jobs for local people through their investment in 185 countries and regions. In particular, the 18 billion U.S. dollars on the BRI delivered more than 160,000 jobs.

By September 2020, China had set up 21 pilot free trade zones (FTZs). These FTZs have facilitated import and export trade, and provided wider investment space for foreign enterprises through preferential policies in tax, foreign currency and other aspects, thus boosting transport industry of the regions and countries where they operate in, and delivering more jobs. This is China's strategic measure to advance reform and opening-up in the new era, and this move is a milestone in China's reform and opening-up.

Honson To, Chairman of KPMG China and Asia Pacific, told the Economic Information Daily, opening-up represents a distinctive feature of China, and it is also China's commitment and action. China has always shared market opportunities with the world since its entry into the WTO. The hosting of the CIIEs is China's concrete action in its new round of opening-up at a higher level.

Despite twists and turns on the new journey in the new era, China will neither change its resolve to open up nor slow its steps in opening up itself. The open China will work together with the rest of the world to advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. (Gao Jingyan)