China made new contributions to global development last year

After 10 years' sluggish growth, the world economy displayed a gradual upswing in 2017 despite its performance at the beginning of the year. As estimated by international institutions, the world economy grew by 3.7 percent and 120 economies saw a pickup in growth in 2017, marking the broadest synchronized global growth upsurge since 2010. This did not come easily. It is widely held in the international community that it was the performance of the Chinese economy, which has been strikingly impressive over the last year, which contributed significantly to the global economic recovery.

China injected strong impetus into the world economy with its growth. In 2017, China's GDP reached 82.7 trillion yuan ($12.95 trillion), an increase of 6.9 percent year-on-year, or in other words, China grew by a middle-sized economy last year. Over the past five years, China's annual average contribution to global economic growth has stayed above 30 percent, exceeding the combined total of the United States, Europe and Japan. Energetically devoted to building an open economy, China registered an outbound direct investment of $120 billion and imports of 12.46 trillion yuan in 2017, thus providing a vast market, investment and development opportunities for other countries. According to statistics from research institutions, China's e-commerce accounts for 40 percent of the world's total, larger than that of the US, Japan, UK, France and Germany put together. Chinese tourists made 129 million outbound trips, giving a huge boost to consumption in the destination countries. A vibrant and resilient Chinese economy continued to be the stabilizer and powerhouse for global growth.

China promoted the development of economic globalization. At the beginning of 2017, when the world was puzzled about where economic globalization should go, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the Davos World Economic Forum, envisaging more open, inclusive, balanced, win-win economic globalization that benefits all. At a pivotal time, his speech pointed out the future direction and boosted international confidence in economic globalization. China pursues innovative, coordinated, green and open development that is for everyone. Based on its own development practices and through such cooperation platforms as the G20 and APEC, China is working vigorously to promote an open world economy, advocate the digital economy and innovative growth, and advance regional cooperation and FTAs, thus contributing China's wisdom to the world economy.