Xi shows nation's firm resolve on opening-up

President highlights China's readiness to share development opportunities

The speech delivered by President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the fifth China International Import Expo strongly expressed the nation's unwavering pledge to further expand its opening-up and its sincerity to share development opportunities with the rest of the world, a top publicity official said.

China stands ready to strengthen communication with various countries and jointly enrich the paths toward modernization, said Li Shu­lei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, at a sub-forum of the fifth Hongqiao International Economic Forum on Saturday.

China will firmly improve people's well-being, promote high-quality development, advance high-standard opening-up, take the path of peaceful development, and inject more vitality into common development of all countries, Li said at the sub-forum on new prospects for China and new opportunities for the world.

More than 200 Chinese and foreign representatives from nearly 60 countries and regions attended the sub-forum online and offline.

Djoomart Otorbaev, former prime minister of Kyrgyzstan, said the 20th CPC National Congress gave concrete directions for China's new development paradigm for the coming five years and the strategic development of the country for the near future.

"What we know is that China intends to increase significantly research and development spending between now and the near future with a focus on cutting-edge technologies," Otorbaev said.

"Central Asian populations are highly educated, and we, together with China, in this digital age, want to be involved in high technology research and development," he said.

The 20th CPC National Congress made clear that China puts economic development as a top priority, said Zhu Min, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

China is moving away from the model of growth driven by traditional investments, the real estate sector and exports, to a new growth model, which focuses more on the digital economy, carbon neutrality and domestic consumption, Zhu said.

If China pushes forward on digitalization, State-owned enterprise reforms, urbanization and further opening-up, particularly in the services sector, the country will still have potential GDP growth of around 5.5 to 6.5 percent, he said.

"When China has strong growth, it will create huge markets and opportunities for the whole world," he said.

Bert Hofman, former World Bank country director for China and director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore, said, "The new development philosophy is China's way to promote development in a balanced and environmentally sound manner that benefits all."

If well designed, China's goal to achieve common prosperity, a plank of the new development philosophy, can lead to a more balanced growth and more consumption-driven demands, and create more import demand. It would provide more opportunities for partners in China's trade, Hofman said.