China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Photo:VCG

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the country's top trade and investment promotion agency, will lead a large delegation of Chinese businesses leaders to attend the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in South Korea, an official told the Global Times on Friday.

The APEC economic leaders' meeting is scheduled to be held from October 31 to November 1 in Gyeongju, South Korea, where the APEC CEO Summit is also scheduled to take place.

"China's business community attaches great importance to participating in Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation," Wu Meng, head of the international department of the CCPIT, said in an interview, adding that "upon invitation by the host, CCPIT Chairman Ren Hongbin will lead a large delegation of Chinese entrepreneurs to Gyeongju, South Korea, to attend the summit."

The delegation will consist of 119 representatives from 57 companies and institutions, covering fields such as finance, infrastructure construction, energy, aviation, chemicals, biomedicine, digital technology, e-commerce, and international trade, according to Wu.

The Chinese business delegation will make full use of the APEC CEO Summit platform to tell China's story and share China's opportunities around topics such as sustainability, artificial intelligence, global finance, energy transformation, regional integration, and health care, and further promote cooperation between the Asia-Pacific business communities.

As open regional cooperation in the Asia Pacific faces many uncertainties and challenges, the CCPIT, as the Chinese Secretariat of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), has actively organized representatives from China's business community to attend meetings in Australia, Canada and Vietnam, and completed the consultation work on major outcome documents, including letters and reports to leaders, according to Wu.

A total of 142 policy recommendations were put forward to leaders, involving advocating open markets and opposing trade protectionism, promoting WTO reform, accelerating the realization of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area, and promoting regional investment facilitation, Wu said.

In its report to APEC economic leaders, which the CPPIT shared with the Global Times on Friday, the ABAC said that it is deeply concerned at the challenges faced by our businesses and communities generated by continuing trade disruption, protectionism and the uncertain global trade and financial landscape. "Our region's prosperity has been founded on the gradual reduction of distortions and the progressive opening of markets," it said.

Among its recommendations, the ABAC urges APEC economies to reaffirm APEC's founding goal of free and open trade, and the core WTO principles of a rules-based order which includes predictable and non-discriminatory trade, and avoid new trade-distorting and trade-restrictive measures that violate treaty obligations.

"We hope that Asia-Pacific economies will attach great importance to the policy recommendations of the business community, adhere to the original aspiration of APEC to be open and inclusive," Wu said, urging certain economies to stop "building walls and barriers" and "decoupling and breaking chains," actively practice the spirit of open regionalism, and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory policy environment for regional cooperation.

Global Times