China’s economic growth over the past 40 years has been achieved with a commitment to opening-up. In the same vein, high-quality development of China’s economy in the future can only be guaranteed with greater openness. I have made it clear once and again that China’s door will never be closed. It will only open still wider. China will not stop its effort to pursue higher-quality opening-up! China will not stop its effort to pursue an open world economy! And China will not stop its effort to pursue a community with a shared future for mankind!

China will unswervingly follow a win-win strategy of opening-up, adopt high-quality policies to advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and move toward nationwide opening-up that coordinates the coastal and inland areas and connects the eastern and western regions. China will remain a strong advocate of openness at the global level, and will continue to act as a stable engine of global growth, a big market with enormous opportunities and an active supporter of global governance reform. To broaden its opening-up, China will step up efforts in the following aspects:

First, we will stimulate the potential for increased imports. China’s initiative to expand imports is not a choice of expediency. It is a future-oriented step taken to embrace the world and promote common development. To meet the trend of consumption upgrading, we will take more proactive measures to increase people’s income and spending power, foster new growth areas of medium-high-end consumption, continue to unleash the potential of the domestic market and expand the scope for imports. We will take further steps to lower tariffs, facilitate customs clearance, reduce institutional costs in import, and step up cross-border e-commerce and other new forms and models of business. China has a big market of over 1.3 billion people, and it is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market. The CIIE, an event to be held on an annual basis, will feature good performance, good results and continued success in the years to come.

Second, we will continue to broaden market access. The market access measures I announced in April have been basically put in place. China has shortened the negative list on foreign investment to reduce investment restrictions and promote investment liberalization. We are steadily increasing the openness of the financial sector, continuing to open up the service sector, and working toward greater openness in the agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors. We are accelerating opening in such areas as telecommunications, education, medical service and culture. In particular, the foreign equity caps are going to be raised in the education and medical service sectors, where there is both huge interest among foreign investors and shortage in domestic supply. In the coming 15 years, China’s import of goods and services are expected to exceed US$30 trillion and US$10 trillion respectively.

Third, we will foster a world-class business environment. China will introduce the law on foreign investment at a faster pace, and institute an open and transparent system of foreign-related laws. We will implement, across the board, the management system based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list. We respect international business rules and practice, and provide equal treatment to all types of businesses registered in China. We protect the lawful rights and interests of foreign companies, and are resolute in meting out, in a law-binding manner, punishment for violations of the lawful rights and interests of foreign investors, particularly IPR infringements. We will enhance the credibility and efficiency of IP examination, and put in place a punitive compensation system to significantly raise the cost for offenders. Improvement of the business environment is an on-going process, and there is always room for things to become better. Countries need to improve their business environment by addressing their problems. They should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems. They should not hold a “flashlight” in hand doing nothing but to check out on the weakness of others and not on their own.

Fourth, we will explore new horizons of opening-up. China will support its pilot free trade zones (FTZ) to deepen reform and innovation, make continued explorations based on their differentiated conditions and step up stress tests, so as to give full play to their role as a pilot ground for reform and opening-up. China will be quick to put forward policies and institutions for building a free trade port in Hainan in a step-by-step and phased manner, so as to speed up exploration of the development of free trade ports with distinct Chinese features. This is a significant move by China to open wider to the world. It will set a new model and open up new prospects for reform and opening-up at a higher level.

Fifth, we will promote international cooperation at multilateral and bilateral levels. China believes that rules of the WTO should be upheld firmly, its necessary reforms should be supported and the multilateral trading system should be defended. China will strive for the early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and speed up negotiations on a China-EU investment agreement and a China-Japan-ROK free trade area. China will earnestly implement the eight major initiatives announced at this year’s Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). China supports mechanisms such as the G20, APEC, the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and BRICS in playing greater roles in building a fairer and more equitable global economic governance system. China will continue to advance the Belt and Road Initiative through international cooperation in the spirit of consultation and collaboration for shared benefits. We will work with the participating countries on major projects, set up more trade promotion platforms and encourage more well-established and capable Chinese companies to invest in countries along the routes to enhance cooperation in areas of ecology, science and technology, culture and people’s livelihood. By so doing, we hope to set up for the whole world a platform for open cooperation.

Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 18:25:25| Editor: Lu Hui

Part of Full text: Keynote speech by President Xi Jinping at opening ceremony of 1st China International Import Expo