China’s President Xi Jinping opens B20 with call for greater openness in world economy
By in Hangzhou Published: Sep 03, 2016 10:10 PM
The Group of 20 (G20) members should work together to build an innovative, open, interconnected and inclusive world economy to achieve robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, President Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Business 20 (B20) summit in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, on Saturday.
"At last year's G20 summit in Antalya, I proposed to make an accurate assessment of the world economy and prescribe the right remedies to boost global growth," Xi said, noting that China hopes all parties at the Hangzhou summit will offer comprehensive solutions to tackle the problems facing the global economy.
As Xi stated, this sought-after world economy should be established through exploring new sources of growth, expanding space for development, joining forces and laying the foundation for win-win solutions.
Xi's remedies closely reflect the theme of the G20 summit, which is "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy," but he used "open" to replace "invigorated" to a certain extent, which is the part that impressed me the most, Zhang Haibing, director of the Institute for World Economy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Saturday.
This emphasis on openness is grounded in reality because the world economy has been struggling with a downturn and some of the reasons behind this situation are trade and investment protectionism, Zhang noted.
"We have advocated finding new sources of growth through innovation and promoting economic vitality by structural reform, but trade barriers have been hindering the flow of products and factors of production around the world, suppressing economic vitality" Zhang explained. "Although the G20 has emphasized anti-protectionism, in actuality, all manners of tariffs and non-tariff barriers have been emerging. China is also encountering trade protectionism challenges these days. Perhaps it is because of this that the China prescription calls for openness instead of invigoration."
Xi also called for a mutual building of fair and efficient global financial governance, open and transparent global trade and investment governance, green and low-carbon global energy governance as well as inclusive and interconnected global development governance.
Xi's calls for innovation and sustainable development resonated with many of the business leaders attending the B20 summit.
"I was very pleased to see the President spend so much time focusing on innovation and sustainable development, as well as his commitment to continuing to foster and drive global economic growth," Peder Holk Nielsen, president and CEO of Novozymes, told the Global Times on Saturday.
"Like the President, we also believe that green development, based on low carbon solutions - reducing energy and water consumption to protect our environment - is and must be core to future economic development and quality of life for all," Nielsen said.
"After the financial crisis, countries are urgently looking for new momentum for economic growth, but only the multiplier effects of innovation incentives can truly help the world economy regain momentum. In the future, financial technology companies can play a bigger role in the innovative economy, by adopting new technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality as Xi mentioned in his speech," Jing Xiandong, president of Ant Financial Services Group, told the Global Times on Saturday.
Jing also noted that inclusive global economic growth needs inclusive finance, which is highly promoted in China's current supply-side reforms in the financial system. In using technology to develop inclusive finance, China has been a global forerunner, and there is still a great deal of room for future development.
"At last year's G20 summit in Antalya, I proposed to make an accurate assessment of the world economy and prescribe the right remedies to boost global growth," Xi said, noting that China hopes all parties at the Hangzhou summit will offer comprehensive solutions to tackle the problems facing the global economy.
As Xi stated, this sought-after world economy should be established through exploring new sources of growth, expanding space for development, joining forces and laying the foundation for win-win solutions.
Xi's remedies closely reflect the theme of the G20 summit, which is "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy," but he used "open" to replace "invigorated" to a certain extent, which is the part that impressed me the most, Zhang Haibing, director of the Institute for World Economy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Saturday.
This emphasis on openness is grounded in reality because the world economy has been struggling with a downturn and some of the reasons behind this situation are trade and investment protectionism, Zhang noted.
"We have advocated finding new sources of growth through innovation and promoting economic vitality by structural reform, but trade barriers have been hindering the flow of products and factors of production around the world, suppressing economic vitality" Zhang explained. "Although the G20 has emphasized anti-protectionism, in actuality, all manners of tariffs and non-tariff barriers have been emerging. China is also encountering trade protectionism challenges these days. Perhaps it is because of this that the China prescription calls for openness instead of invigoration."
Xi also called for a mutual building of fair and efficient global financial governance, open and transparent global trade and investment governance, green and low-carbon global energy governance as well as inclusive and interconnected global development governance.
Xi's calls for innovation and sustainable development resonated with many of the business leaders attending the B20 summit.
"I was very pleased to see the President spend so much time focusing on innovation and sustainable development, as well as his commitment to continuing to foster and drive global economic growth," Peder Holk Nielsen, president and CEO of Novozymes, told the Global Times on Saturday.
"Like the President, we also believe that green development, based on low carbon solutions - reducing energy and water consumption to protect our environment - is and must be core to future economic development and quality of life for all," Nielsen said.
"After the financial crisis, countries are urgently looking for new momentum for economic growth, but only the multiplier effects of innovation incentives can truly help the world economy regain momentum. In the future, financial technology companies can play a bigger role in the innovative economy, by adopting new technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality as Xi mentioned in his speech," Jing Xiandong, president of Ant Financial Services Group, told the Global Times on Saturday.
Jing also noted that inclusive global economic growth needs inclusive finance, which is highly promoted in China's current supply-side reforms in the financial system. In using technology to develop inclusive finance, China has been a global forerunner, and there is still a great deal of room for future development.
