Collaboration and Win Win Creating the Future - The Power of Change
In the 45 years since the reform and opening up, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has achieved historic achievements in opening up to the outside world, achieved historic changes, and formed a new pattern of comprehensive opening up in all aspects, multiple levels, and a wide range of fields. In the new era and new journey, the door to China's opening up will not close, but will only continue to widen.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
At the end of 2023, China will implement a unilateral visa free policy for individuals holding ordinary passports from six Eurasian countries. Starting from December 1st, the popularity of foreign tourists entering the country has been continuously increasing. Coming to China is becoming increasingly fast; Going abroad has become increasingly convenient. In the midst of this kind of "you come and I go", China's opening-up has gone through a glorious 45 year history.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at Renmin University of China, said, "Simply put, it means that China has entered the center of the world stage from a regional and conservative country with only a slight opening of its doors, and has achieved the dual flow of information, talent, materials, and funds as a global power. This is the greatest achievement of opening up in 45 years."
Openness is an important driving force for the progress of human civilization and a necessary path for world prosperity and development. In the past 45 years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's reform and opening up have not only greatly changed China's appearance, but also promoted the prosperity and development of the world.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Chongqing is located in the southwestern inland of China and is also an international comprehensive transportation hub. The China Europe freight train departs from Chongqing and its destination is Duisburg, Germany. In the ten years since the proposal of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, more than 50000 kinds of goods have come and gone through this trade channel connecting Europe and Asia.
See through the containers on the train. They may be Chinese cars, televisions, dishwashers, or your international mail bags, or Spanish wine, or French cosmetics... With the development of the "the Belt and Road", new lines are growing in the west, which is just a microcosm of trade under the "the Belt and Road" initiative.
In the past ten years, China and the countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" have continuously strengthened policy communication, facility connectivity, smooth trade, financial integration, and people to people connections, and worked hard to promote economic globalization towards a more open, inclusive, inclusive, balanced, and win-win direction.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Wang Wen, Executive Director of Chongyang Institute of Finance, Renmin University of China, said, "All the achievements of opening up can actually be demonstrated under the framework of the 'the Belt and Road'. The 'the Belt and Road' has indeed formed a three-dimensional, multi-level, high-quality and all-round new framework and pattern of China's foreign exchanges under the overall management plan in the process of foreign exchanges."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Today, China has signed more than 230 cooperation documents on jointly building the "the Belt and Road" with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations. China's foreign exchanges have become more balanced, achieving true "friends all over the world".
Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at Renmin University of China, said, "Before 2012, about 60% of China's foreign trade was with the United States, Europe, and Japan. Now, China Russia trade has grown almost every year by 20% and 30%, and most countries in China and the Middle East trade have grown by about 20%, the same as Africa's growth of 10% and 20%."
The joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has continued to go deep and solid, while a series of high-level exhibitions have also been launched. A series of exciting exhibitions that attract customers from all over the world and circulate wealth from all directions bring unlimited business opportunities to China and the world.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
This year is the fourth time that Afghan young man Ali Faiz has participated in the CIIE. Today, he can proficiently live stream on the China Mobile e-commerce platform. He showcases the bits and pieces of the CIIE on his media account and leaves a message: "Wishing the CIIE a better future and a long-lasting friendship between China and Arab countries!"
For Alibaba, the turning point in life occurred four years ago. He participated in the CIIE for the first time and sold 20 Afghan carpets with a 9 square meter booth, as well as receiving a large number of orders from Shanghai, Beijing, and Liaoning. Since then, his fate with his hometown friends has changed.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
The China International Import Expo, which brings unlimited business opportunities to Alibaba, is now known as one of the three major exhibitions for China's opening-up, along with the China International Trade in Services Fair and the China Import and Export Commodity Fair.
Zhang Yansheng, Chief Researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchange, said, "It can be seen that there is no second CIIE in the world, and so is the Chain Expo. Why? Because these are all global public goods, they help promote international supply chain cooperation and promote global economic development."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
China will always be an important opportunity for world development. We will firmly promote high-level opening up and enable win-win cooperation to benefit the world.
Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at Renmin University of China, said, "What we open up is not only to open the door, let people in and out, let information in and out, and let funds in and out, but more importantly, we also carry out institutional openness in terms of systems, rules, standards, and other aspects."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Shanghai, located on the banks of the Huangpu River, is an important economic, financial, and cultural center in China, and also a pioneer of high-level institutional openness. In 2013, China's first free trade pilot zone was born here. This is a major measure taken by the Party Central Committee to coordinate the domestic and international development trends, and promote reform and opening up in the new situation.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Cui Weijie, Vice President of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said, "At that time, the establishment of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone had a relatively important background, which was the emergence of TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) and TTIP (Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement) internationally." "These large-scale free trade agreements contain many new economic and trade rules that we are not very familiar with. Therefore, following the approach taken since the reform and opening up, since we do not understand and cannot grasp them accurately, we will conduct experiments at specific points and use them to promote larger scale exploration of reform and opening up."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Today, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has become a true leader among domestic pilot free trade zones. Nearly half of the 302 innovative achievements in the free trade zone system replicated and promoted at the national level originate from the pioneering or synchronous pilot projects of this free trade pilot zone. Today's openness and progress are by no means accidental, but come from the foresight of top-level design ten years ago.
Zhang Yansheng, Chief Researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchange, said, "When Shanghai applied, it was not a pilot free trade zone, but a free trade park. That area was called a customs special supervision area, and there were many fences to surround it. However, Shanghai, which was finally approved by the state as a pilot free trade zone, still needed to be replicable and promotable, which was very innovative."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
The positioning of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone reflects the top-level design of the Party Central Committee's determination to expand high-level opening up to the outside world - shifting from "flow oriented opening up of goods and factors" to "institutional opening up of rules, regulations, management, standards, and other systems". This exploration also runs through the practice of a series of pilot free trade zones (ports) thereafter.
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Today, China's pilot free trade zones have already spread across 22 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country. As the highest level of openness in the world, Hainan Free Trade Port has completed the design and implementation of 14 batches and more than 140 innovative institutional integration solutions. At the westernmost end of China's territory, the Xinjiang Pilot Free Trade Zone was also established in November 2023. Since its inception, it has shouldered the pilot tasks of 129 reforms in 8 aspects, of which 6 involve breaking through existing laws and regulations.
Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute of Finance at Renmin University of China, said, "Not only in the eastern coastal areas, but also across the so-called Hu Huanyong Line, entering the central and western regions, entering a new stage of all-round and high-quality three-dimensional opening."
Cui Weijie, Vice President of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said, "More importantly, it is of great significance for us to optimize the entire opening-up layout in the next step, promote a higher level of openness nationwide, including the creation of the Asia Europe Golden Corridor, which has played an important role in opening up to the west, and has also carried out many differentiated explorations in these fields."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
The formation of a comprehensive and multi-level opening-up pattern is accelerating from coastal, inland to border areas. The Development Report of China's Pilot Free Trade Zones shows that the leading role of China's pilot free trade zones in the development of an open economy is becoming increasingly evident; The leading and demonstrative role of institutional innovation is becoming increasingly evident; The supporting role in building world-class industrial clusters is becoming increasingly evident.
Cui Weijie, Vice President of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said, "According to 2022 data, our 21 pilot free trade zones account for less than 4% of the country's total area, contributing about 18% of the country's foreign investment and imports and exports. As the forefront platform and carrier in the open field, the pilot free trade zones have significantly improved the level of our open economy through the opening up of foreign investment access and cross-border service trade."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
While the pilot free trade zones are flourishing, China is also accelerating the integration of rules, regulations, standards, etc., and exploring new space for economic and trade development. In June 2023, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement initiated by ASEAN came into full force. This is a text retained by the General Administration of Customs during the initial negotiation of the agreement. Each color on it represents a country's thoughts and opinions, and eliminating each color is eliminating a disagreement. From 2012 to 2023, with China's persistent efforts and unremitting promotion, all colors finally came together, and the 15 countries in the region became the world's most populous and largest free trade zones in terms of economic and trade scale.
Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said, "Because Chinese believe that openness can bring progress, and closeness is bound to lag behind, why China is developing very well? I think this kind of mind is important. China promotes an open world economy, promotes Chinese path to modernization, and builds a community with a shared future for mankind, which is beneficial to China and the world."
Focus Interview | Collaborative Win Win Creating Future - The Power of Change
Today in China, the pace of opening up is expanding into broader fields. China is shaping new driving forces and advantages for high-quality development through high-level opening up to the outside world. Through deep interaction with the world, China is constantly opening up new horizons of cooperation and win-win.
Openness is a distinct symbol of contemporary China. "If the world is good, China will be good; if China is good, the world will be better." China has always demonstrated through practical actions that its determination to expand high-level opening-up to the outside world will not change, and its determination to share development opportunities with the world will not change.
