President Xi Jinping had a collective meeting with the leaders of major international economic organizations here at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday. President Xi posed for a group photo with the participating leaders at the beginning of the meeting, and thanked the leaders for their long-time support for China’s modernization. President Xi pointed out that with the acceleration of unprecedented global transformation, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, and once again come to a critical crossroads. Humanity is a closely entwined community with a shared future. 

Countries are not riding separately in some 190 small boats, but are rather all in a giant ship on which their shared destiny hinges.  As such, they should see each other’s development as opportunities rather than challenges, and treat each other as partners rather than rivals. Global solidarity, cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win should become the defining theme of the times.  China is ready to work with the major international economic organizations to practice multilateralism, promote international cooperation, and support the development of Global South countries, so as to advance an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and build a just world of common development.

President of the New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva, President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga, and Director-General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala gave remarks on behalf of the participating international economic organizations.  They applauded China’s achievements in economic development, expressed optimism about China’s development prospect, and thanked China for its long-standing support for the work of international economic organizations. 

They noted that China’s development achievements are recognized by the world. In particular, it has created a human miracle in poverty reduction, and become a global leader in new quality productive forces.  This fully proves that the people-centered development philosophy adopted by the Chinese government is both successful and viable, and provides important inspirations for the rest of the world. China has been a crucial engine and anchor of global growth and a staunch defender of multilateralism. 

China’s endeavor to further deepen reform comprehensively, expand opening up and pursue high-quality development brings enormous opportunities to the world, especially Global South countries.  The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the three global initiatives put forth by President Xi Jinping speak volumes about China’s sense of responsibility as a major country, and provide important platforms for Global South countries to get on board the fast train of China’s development in pursuit of their own development. 

The world economy is facing many difficulties and challenges, and unilateralism and protectionism are clearly on the rise. Countries across the world are looking to China, with the hope and confidence that China will continue to function as the most important engine of global growth.  The major international economic organizations are ready to work closely with China to uphold multilateralism, protect free trade and economic globalization, and make greater contributions to the common development and prosperity of the world, so as to create a brighter shared future for humanity.

President Xi listened attentively to the remarks of participating leaders, and responded on subjects of their interest, including the world economy, the Chinese economy, and global economic governance. President Xi underscored that how to bring the world economy onto a path of strong and sustainable growth is a major question for the international community. 

As each economy faces its own set of challenges, it is imperative to build an open world economy through cooperation, drive development through innovation, seize the important opportunities of the digital economy, artificial intelligence and low-carbon technology, foster new sources of economic growth, and support the cross-border flow of knowledge, technology and talent. Building “small yard with high fences,” decoupling and disrupting supply chains bring harm to others without benefiting oneself.  China always believes that the world does well when China does well; and when the world does well, China will do even better. For countries, economic interdependence should be seen as a good thing that enables all to draw on each other’s strengths for mutual benefit and win-win results. It should not be taken as a risk.

President Xi briefed the leaders on the Third Plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee, in particular the host of important measures recently introduced by China.  He noted that after more than four decades of rapid growth, the Chinese economy has entered a stage of high-quality development and its contribution to global growth remains above 30 percent. China has full confidence in meeting this year’s growth target and continuing to serve as the biggest engine of world economic growth. China’s development is open and inclusive. 

China will continue to expand opening up, take the initiative to align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, foster a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized, put in place new systems for a higher-standard open economy, provide more opportunities for the development of other countries, and share more development benefits with the world. President Xi presented the good progress of the BRI since its inception more than 10 years ago, and stressed that as a doer and go-getter, China has been hammering away at advancing Belt and Road cooperation and building bridges for common development of China and the world. 

China welcomes international economic organizations to continue their active participation in BRI cooperation, and jointly promote the modernization of all countries featuring peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation and common prosperity. On global economic governance, President Xi stressed that it would be impossible to promote global growth without effective and proactive global economic governance. International economic organizations need to keep abreast with the changing circumstances, and respond to the call of the times and the aspirations of the world’s people. They need to actively engage in and push for reforms of the global economic governance system to make it more just and equitable and reflective of the changing world economic landscape, with greater representation and voice of Global South countries. 

Some consensus has been reached in this regard between various parties, and what is key now is to turn vision into reality. No matter how the reform of global economic governance is carried forward, it must adhere to the principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit, uphold true multilateralism, and ensure equal rights, equal opportunities and equal rules for all countries. President Xi elaborated on China’s consistent, principled position on China-U.S. relations. He underscored that China is willing to maintain dialogue, expand cooperation and manage differences with the U.S. government and work for steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations, and hopes that the U.S. will work with China in the same direction. 

Tariff war, trade war and tech war are against the trend of history and laws of economics, and they produce no winners. China will stay focused on managing its own affairs well, and resolutely safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests. At the same time, China’s determination to advance high-level opening up will not change.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP) — Pak-China