Xi: New growth model offers opportunities

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday expounded on how China’s unlocked market potential, wider opening-up and deepening international cooperation under the new development paradigm will offer more development opportunities and bring shared prosperity to the world.

Addressing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Dialogues via video link, Xi said the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes unseen in a century in the world, warning of increasing risks and uncertainties in the world economy caused by mounting unilateralism and protectionism.

“However, peace and development remain the underlying trend of our times. Meeting challenges through cooperation is the only way forward for us in the international community,” Xi noted.

Taking into account China’s domestic development and changes in the external environment, the country’s top leadership has made a strategic decision to foster a new development paradigm with the domestic circulation as the mainstay and internal and external circulations reinforcing each other.

Elaborating on the new paradigm, Xi said China will expand domestic demand as a strategic priority and ensure smooth flow of economic activities, vigorously make scientific and technological innovations to foster new growth drivers, while continuing to deepen reform and energize the market.

As China has effectively contained the virus and brought production and life back to normal, Xi said the fundamentals sustaining the country’s steady and long-term economic growth remain unchanged, noting China has full confidence and ability to maintain stable economic performance.

China has embraced its best quarterly economic performance of the year in the third quarter, with a year-on-year expansion of 0.7 percent in the first nine months, as the first major economy to return to growth following the economic fallout of COVID-19.

By fostering the new development paradigm, China is not pursuing a closed-door circulation, but open and mutually reinforcing domestic and international circulations, Xi noted.

“It is clear that no economic recovery from the current global economic slowdown is possible without China being a major part of the equation,” noted Rohana Mahmood, chair of APEC Business Advisory Council.

Xi said the new development paradigm will enable China to fully unlock its market potential and create greater demand for other countries.

“As China’s economy grows, our people naturally want to lead an even better life. This will create more demand for a greater variety of quality products, technologies and services from across the world,” he said.

Meanwhile, Xi vowed that China will further cut tariffs and government instituted transaction costs, and open a number of demonstration zones for creative promotion of import trade to increase import of quality goods and services.