President of China addresses opening ceremony of 5th CIIE

Beijing, 5 November 2022 (TDI): The President of China, Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) via video link.

The ceremony was held in Shanghai. Xi Jinping delivered a speech on the occasion, titled “Working Together for a Bright Future of Openness and Prosperity”.

He recalled that five years prior, he had made the decision to hold the CIIE specifically with the intention of accelerating China’s reform and opening up its sizable market to the rest of the world, creating enormous opportunities.

The CIIE is now a demonstration of China’s new development paradigm, a venue for high-standard opening-up, and a global public good.

Openness, according to President Xi Jinping, is a major factor in the advancement of human civilizations and a natural path to prosperity and development on a global scale.

Along these lines, the President of China stated that today’s world is dealing with slow economic recovery and rapid changes that haven’t happened in a century.

In order to meet development challenges, promote cooperation, accelerate innovation, and deliver benefits, a commitment to being open should be made.

President Xi Jinping noted that as the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has underscored, China remains committed to the fundamental national policy of opening up to the outside world.

In this vein, it pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up along with adhering to the right course of economic globalization.

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Along these lines, China will amplify the interplay between domestic and international markets and resources, strive to create new opportunities for the world with development, as well as contribute to building an open global economy.

In this context, he stressed that “China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities in its vast market.

We will step up efforts to cultivate a robust domestic market, upgrade trade in goods, develop new mechanisms for trade in services, and import more quality products.

We will establish pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation and build national demonstration zones for innovative development of trade in services, so as to encourage innovation in trade and promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.”

Moreover, “China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities from its institutional opening-up,” he said.

“We will steadily expand institutional opening-up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards, put into full effect the new Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, and further develop the national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the service sector.”

“We will implement the strategy to upgrade pilot free trade areas, accelerate the Hainan Free Trade Port development, and tap into their role as pilot platforms for comprehensive reform and opening-up.”

“China will work with all countries and all parties to share the opportunities from deepened international cooperation.

We will engage fully and deeply in WTO reform negotiations, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and enhance international macroeconomic policy coordination, with a view to jointly fostering new drivers for global growth.

We will endeavor actively to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to expand the globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas.

We will firmly support other developing countries and assist them in growing faster and promote the building of a human community with a shared future.”

Finally, President Xi Jinping emphasized that the “path was unfolding and a brighter future beckons beyond. China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, and build more consensus for openness.”

“It will jointly overcome the difficulties and challenges confronting global economic growth, and make sure that our commitment to openness will bring about broad prospects for global development.”