An exterior view of the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Tianjin) which holds 2025 Summer Davos Forum in north China's Tianjin Municipality on June 25, 2025 Photo: VCG

The 16th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, wrapped up in North China's Tianjin on Thursday with officials, scholars and business leaders concluding their three-day discussion of topics ranging from innovation to economics and geopolitics and highlighting China's important role in driving economic growth in a volatile world.

"Despite a complex geo-economic context, the meeting was marked by a renewed spirit of collaboration and partnership. There was a keen sense that we cannot simply react to developments; instead, we must strengthen our agency to address challenges and drive positive and lasting change," Mirek Dusek, managing director of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said at the closing ceremony of the forum. 

Themed "Entrepreneurship for a New Era," the event saw the hosting of nearly 200 sub-forums focused on five key areas: deciphering the world economy, outlook on China, industries disrupted, investing in people and the planet, and new energy and materials. The event drew more than 1,700 leading figures from more than 90 countries and regions, with the number of participants hitting a record high, according to the organizer.

The successful hosting of the 16th Summer Davos in Tianjin fully demonstrates China's confidence in achieving sustained and steady economic growth, and determination to provide impetus for world economic growth by opening up its market and integrating into the global market, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press briefing on Thursday. 

China firmly embraces a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and advocates resolving differences and disagreements through equal consultation, safeguarding common interests in mutually beneficial cooperation, and contributing to each other's development by generating more growth, Guo said.

China will continue to develop itself into a major country in terms of development, consumption and innovation, and the Chinese economy, with its further development, will continue to contribute to the world economy. "We warmly welcome enterprises from around the world to invest in China, deepen your roots in China, and develop alongside China. We look forward to working with all parties to do more things for the greater good, to break new grounds and for win-win results, and jointly create a better future," Guo said.  

Bassam Al-Ibrahim, a representative of the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority of Qatar, who attended the Summer Davos in Tianjin for the first time, spoke highly of the forum.

"This is an amazing platform to have world leaders and innovators come together to really discuss current issues - how they can be resolved, and potentially setting the policies and procedures that will advance the entire world, not just China, into a much better situation than we are now," he told the Global Times on the sidelines of the forum. China is playing a big role in ensuring that such dialogues are always held, he said.

While providing an important platform for promoting exchanges between China and the world and enhancing cooperation, the event also enables participants to share insights, especially in the field of innovation. 

On Tuesday, the WEF unveiled the top 10 emerging technologies of 2025, including collaborative sensing and generative watermarking, which are expected to achieve real-world impact within three to five years and address global challenges.

During the Summer Davos, artificial intelligence (AI) developments and China's impressive DeepSeek models propelled AI onto center stage, winning acclaim from overseas participants. 

"This is my second time in China. I have heard and seen very great things about the China market like massive infrastructure and innovations. I have also been a user of DeepSeek, which is one of the technological innovations that are not just for China but also the world. Overall, I would say the outlook on China is quite great in terms of the way it's heading in technology," Rahul Attuluri, CEO of Indian tech firm NxtWave Technologies, told the Global Times.

Commenting on the growing unilateralism and protectionism in the West, Attuluri said meaningful collaboration on technology across the world can bring much better value to all humanity.

Citing China's rapid development in such sectors as electric vehicles and lithium batteries, Ilham Kadri, CEO of the Executive Committee of Syensqo, a Belgian multinational material company, said at a sub-forum on China's economy on Thursday that China is the chemical hub, with about 50 percent of chemical output worldwide coming from China. China has gone from copying and imitation to producing new champions in the chemical industry, she said.

Now is a wonderful time for the Chinese economy, given that such innovations and emerging technologies create great potential for the future, Eswar Prasad, a professor from Cornell University, said at the same sub-forum.

A recent report released by the World Bank showed that China's economy maintained growth momentum in early 2025, and in response to global trade uncertainty, the government has implemented accommodative monetary and fiscal policies. Recently, international institutions, such as J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, have revised up China's growth outlook.