The Fortune Global Forum 2017 opened in Guangzhou on Dec. 6th, attracting a lot of attention around the world.
With the theme of "Openness and Innovation: Shaping the Global Economy," the forum has gathered the heads of the world’s biggest multinational companies, or the Fortune Global 500, government officials and celebrities, discussing how openness and innovation – in China and beyond – are the primary forces in guiding economic development, leading to prosperity and progress.
From Guangzhou, the forefront of reform, opening-up and innovation in China, to the whole Chinese mainland, where socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, China is truly living up to the theme of the forum with the miracles it has created in over three decades. In fact, the Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou is the latest example of China's promotion of an open economy and global cooperation and governance.
Chinese miracle ushers in new era
Some 40 years ago, China's gross domestic product (GDP) was less than 400 billion RMB, placing it in the ranks of the world's least-developed low-income countries. In 1978, China began to carry out its reform and opening-up policy.
From then on, after nearly 40 years, more than 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty. China has become the second-largest economy in the world and the world's major growth engine. China also provides a strong impetus for global governance reform. Today, the total volume of China's economy has increased over 200 times, with an annual increment equivalent to that of a medium-sized developed country. It is its reform and opening-up policy that makes China able to catch up with the times and march toward a brilliant future of national rejuvenation.
In a congratulatory letter to the Fortune Global Forum 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China's economy has the foundation, condition and impetus to maintain stable growth and sound momentum.
China has maintained its position as the world’s second-largest economy and contributed more than 30 percent of global economic growth. China's massive overseas investment and growing outbound tourism provide great opportunities for the rest of the world.
John Ross, former director of Economic and Business Policy for the Mayor of London, said that no country in the world has contributed as much as China.
China has become the center of world economic growth. Therefore, China's entry into a new era will also provide opportunities for the world's economic growth, he said.
As the economy keeps growing, structural changes in China's economy have begun to affect the trend of world economic development.
After the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the world economic structure witnessed an accelerated adjustment along with global economic governance system changes. In the face of the changing circumstances, China has decisively implemented a supply-side structural reform, pushed forward the improvement of its industrial structure, helped make economic growth innovation-driven, and effectively mitigated the impact of external challenges. Led by an upgraded version of the reform and opening-up policy, China has gradually become a major contributor to world economic growth, helping to improve the global economic structure, and a leader in global economic governance reform.
Patrick Mendis, senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and senior fellow at the Pangoal Institution, said that China has made such a tremendous achievement that it can be called a rare success of human civilization. He said that means China's development model has proven to be useful.
New era, new blueprint
A new blueprint for China's development was announced in Xi's report to the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress: "In the first stage from 2020 to 2035, we will build on the foundation created by the moderately prosperous society with a further 15 years of hard work to see that socialist modernization is basically realized. In the second stage from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century, we will, building on having basically achieved modernization, work hard for a further 15 years and develop China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful."
Innovation is still the key factor in building a modern socialist country and in implementing the new blueprint. Some 40 years ago, Guangdong was on the front lines and a trailblazer for China's reform and opening-up. Today, Guangdong is still at the forefront of innovation-driven development.
The Pazhou Internet innovation zone of Haizhu district in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province is undergoing a construction boom. Many mega Internet companies have settled in. They are together creating a global Internet industry innovation and entrepreneurship center. Looking into the future, Ma Zhengyong, secretary of the Haizhu District Committee of the CPC, is full of confidence: "A new era gives us new missions and a new goal will open up a new journey. We are confident of building this area into a world-class innovation cluster."
Intelligent manufacturing workshops, quantum confidential communication technology, biological 3D printing technology ... At present, Guangzhou is working hard to develop its IAB industry. The so-called IAB industry, a new generation of the information technology, artificial intelligence, bio-medicine industry, is a prosperous industry with high-technology content, strong innovation drive and great future potential. It is a driver of promoting economic restructuring and upgrading.
Openness and inclusiveness, the spirit of Guangzhou, harmonize with innovation and entrepreneurship, the spirit pursued by business leaders.
Here in Guangzhou, Wechat, a life-changing product for over 900 million users worldwide, was developed by a seven-people product team. Ehang, an innovative, technology-oriented enterprise that specializes in smart drones, developed the world's first passenger-carrying drone (184 autonomous aerial vehicle). GRG Banking, the world's leading financial intelligence equipment and systems solutions provider, developed the world's first ATM machine which integrates face recognition, finger vein recognition and iris recognition. Poya company, meanwhile, has developed the world's first "cloud computing-enabled face recognition" research project.
Alan Murray, Editor-in-chief with the Fortune Magazine, said on Dec. 3rd at the press conference for the forum that there are increasing areas – like mobile payments, drone development and others – where China has become not a follower, but the global technological leader. and he added that: "We believe it’s important to recognize the innovative work going on in the tech space here in China."
Nurturing new motivation
"China’s economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. This is a pivotal stage for transforming our growth model, improving our economic structure, and fostering new drivers of growth. It is imperative that we develop a modernized economy," Xi said at the 19th CPC National Congress.
"We must put quality first and give priority to performance. We should pursue supply-side structural reform as our main task, and work hard for better quality, higher efficiency, and more robust drivers of economic growth through reform," Xi said.
"We should endeavor to develop an economy with more effective market mechanisms, dynamic micro-entities, and sound macro-regulation. This will steadily strengthen the innovation capacity and competitiveness of China's economy," he said.
Baker McKenzie chair Paul Rawlinson said in a recent interview that he was very excited about the content of opening-up on all fronts in President Xi's report to the 19th CPC National Congress.
He said he believes that there will be more development opportunities for foreign companies in China and Chinese enterprises going abroad.
Thanks to the Chinese government's long-standing policy of opening-up, foreign investors' confidence has greatly increased. In particular, the introduction of a negative list of foreign investment and the introduction of supporting measures have greatly simplified the examination and approval procedures for foreign investment, enhanced transparency and facilitated foreign investment. Foreign companies in China are embracing unprecedented opportunities.
Guangzhou, China's "Southern Gate," has a spirit of opening-up and innovation that has existed for thousands of years. It is garnering the attention of global investors.
In recent years, Guangzhou has focused on future development and introduced a large number of innovative and major projects. A new industrial chain is taking shape. At the same time, as an important city in China, Guangzhou has a strong capability of resource allocation, gathering and dissemination. It has attracted a number of important companies to open offices there. As an international business and trade center, Guangzhou is constantly breaking down institutional barriers to business development and exploring new development paths.
In addition, Guangzhou has also made efforts to protect intellectual property rights, accelerating the application of intellectual property. It has also worked hard on streamlining administration and delegating powers, and provided efficient, convenient and standardized government services for business management.
Also said in the congratulatory letter by Xi, is that China will not close its door to the world, and it will only become more and more open, with its business environment becoming more open, transparent and regulated.
In fact, Guangzhou has become one of the most suitable cities for business in China. For the past six years, Guangzhou has been ranked by Forbes magazine as the best commercial city in the Chinese mainland for five years in a row. What's more, PricewaterhouseCoopers and China Development Research Foundation ranked Guangzhou "China's City of Opportunities" for two consecutive years on the top of the list. Guangzhou is making a name for itself as a place of global innovative resources such as information, technology, brands, know-how and talent. It is ideally suited for development in the new era.
In the future, Guangzhou is focusing on 10 key areas such as intelligent equipment and robots, a new generation of information technology and bio-medicine. It will strive to cultivate and introduce advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries. It will also develop a group of influential projects to enhance its high-tech industry.
For centuries, Guangzhou has been a gateway to China's global trade and commerce and has now become a symbol of China's openness and diversity as well as of globalization in general. Nowadays, after nearly 40 years of reform and opening-up, Guangzhou is actively participating in economic globalization and its influence is gradually increasing. Guangzhou is becoming a mecca for innovative entrepreneurs.
At the opening of the Fortune Global Forum 2017, China and Guangzhou revealed what is meant by the theme of "Openness and Innovation: Shaping the Global Economy." An open and innovative Guangzhou is a microcosm of China's entry into a new era. China, with a faster pace of innovation, better quality of development and opening-up on all fronts, will become more influential and surely bring more cooperation opportunities for other countries to board China's "fast train of development."
Looking into the future, the benefits created by China's reform and opening-up and innovation will undoubtedly lead to more win-win situations for all countries.
