"We must adhere to the basic national policy of opening up to the outside world, insist on promoting reforms through opening up, rely on China's advantage of its super-sized market, enhance our opening-up capacity in expanding international cooperation, and build a higher level of a new open economic system."
Openness is the driving force for reform. China's high-standard opening-up to the outside world brings confidence and opportunities to the world.
Over the past few days, many executives of foreign enterprises, foreign experts and scholars, and representatives of chambers of commerce have told the Southern Metropolis Daily and N-Video that the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has provided an important window for the international community to observe China's promotion of high-quality development and high-level opening up in the new era, and they look forward to China's contribution of more wisdom and experience to the world.
Fabien Pacory
Fabien Pacory, Executive Vice President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, told the Southern Metropolis Daily that over the past two years, he has noticed that more and more French companies have taken the initiative to proactively explore opportunities for cooperation in China, with the Canton Fair being a particularly notable platform."
According to Pacory, this trend reflects the growing interest and recognition of French companies in the dynamism of the Chinese market and mutually beneficial partnerships.
Institutionalized openness is a prerequisite for a high level of openness to the outside world.
U.S. biopharmaceutical company Pfizer Global Biopharma Business Group has been rooted in China for more than 30 years. President of Pfizer China, Jean-Christophe Pointeau, said in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily that China's high-standard opening up to the outside world, the increasingly optimized business environment and policies, has brought great potential and resilience to China's economy, attracting Pfizer to long-term root in this land.
Jean-Christophe Pointeau
Steadily expanding system-based opening up, further expanding market access has shortened the negative list for foreign investment, and forming a more market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment will surely provide countries around the world with broader market space and bring more opportunities for win-win cooperation.
In 2013, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was established. China's first negative list for foreign investment access was released and implemented, and it was extended to other Pilot Free Trade Zones in 2015 and implemented nationwide in 2016. Kwon Ki-sik, head of the Korea-China City Friendship Association, saw the pioneering spirit in it. "The Pilot Free Trade Zone has created many 'firsts' in China's reform and opening-up process, saving time and costs, which makes it an attractive option for foreign investors."
Kwon Ki-sik
The visa-free transit policy has also played an important role in serving the country's high-standard opening up to the outside world, facilitating the movement of people from China and abroad, and promoting foreign exchanges and cooperation. In July, the 144-hour visa-free transit policy was implemented at 37 ports in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangdong, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Jieyang. Australian professor Richard Petty, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong, who has worked and lived in China for nearly 30 years, said that it was another positive signal of China's expanding openness.
Openness brings progress, and cooperation is the only way to win-win.
Speaking of international cooperation, Khalid Taimur Akram, Executive Director of Pakistan Research Center for a Community with Shared Future, told the Southern Metropolis Daily that the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and other popular international public goods and international cooperation platforms have provided a solid guarantee for world peace and development.
Khalid Taimur Akram
Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, which has not only brought tangible benefits to the countries concerned but also made positive contributions to the healthy development of economic globalization, solved the problems of global development, and perfected the global governance system. It has opened up a new path for all humanity to realize modernization and promoted the building of a global community of shared future.
Gustavo Sabino Vaca Narvaja
Gustavo Sabino Vaca Narvaja, a former Argentine ambassador to China, told the Southern Metropolis Daily that the modernization proposed and implemented by China is not intended to make the rich countries richer and the poor countries poorer but to promote the common prosperity of the peoples of the world.
Kwon Ki-sik also believes that when some Western countries only consider their own interests, China adheres to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind while carrying out international cooperation. And through the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, the least developed countries have gradually realized unprecedented development.
Reporter | He Jiahui from Southern Metropolis Daily, N-Video
Intern | Yu Xinhong, Peng Ziqian from Southern Metropolis Daily, N-Video
Editor | Xiang Xueni, Chen Danling, He Jiahui from Southern Metropolis Daily, N-Video
Photo | Southern Metropolis Daily, N-Video
