Economy opening up to offset virus impact

The Government Work Report Premier Li Keqiang delivered to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, points out that in the face of a changing external environment, the country will unswervingly open up the economy wider to the outside world, stabilize industrial supply chains and promote reform and development through opening-up.

International observers have said that in the backdrop of the novel coronavirus outbreak severely impacting the world economy, China's firm stance on opening-up and the other concrete measures it has taken will help boost confidence in the world economy.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has disrupted the flow of people and capital, damaged global supply and industrial chains, severely curtailed international trade, undermined the open trading system and fueled the rise of populism and protectionism.

Globalization is an inevitable trend that drives global economic development and human progress. Since the launch of reform and opening-up, China has opened its door wider, which boosted economic take-off. Based on its understanding of the global trend and its own development practices under the impact of the epidemic, China has shown its confidence and resolve in opening up the economy to and actively promoted cooperation with the outside world. In times of crisis, China has chosen to work with the rest of the world to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.

Despite the pressures caused by the epidemic, China has continued to open up the State-level economic development zones, border economic cooperation zones and other demonstration zones, strengthened services for foreign enterprises, revised the industrial catalog to encourage foreign investment and guided local governments to fully implement the Foreign Investment Law.

It accelerated opening-up of its capital markets, even lifting investment quotas of qualified foreign institutional investors. In the first quarter of 2020, net inflows of direct investment reached $14.9 billion, reflecting the long-term willingness of foreign investors to invest in China. As the epidemic has eased, the actual use of foreign investment in April reached 70.36 billion yuan ($9.84), up 11.8 percent year-on-year, indicating China is still a favored foreign investment destination.

The all-out efforts being made by China for the third China International Import Expo and other major economic events to build a platform for practical economic and trade cooperation for all sectors also demonstrate China's firm stance in promoting economic globalization and building a community with a shared future for mankind. It is of great significance to accelerating the recovery of global economic growth and building an open world economy.