Beijing, March 29, 2024 (ots/PRNewswire) – The opening ceremony of the 2024 annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) was held in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, on Thursday. China’s top lawmaker Zhao Leji emphasized China’s economic potential in his keynote speech, appealed to international investors and called for Asian solidarity and cooperation for regional prosperity.
Zhao, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, emphasized that China is pursuing a path of high-quality development and deepening reform and opening-up, providing great development opportunities for Asia and the world.
“Investing in China is investing in the future.”
China has set an economic growth target of around five percent for 2024, and the country’s GDP grew 5.2 percent last year, one of the highest among major economies. The Chinese economy accounts for about a third of global growth, and the International Monetary Fund forecast last year that a 1 percentage point increase in GDP growth in China would lead to a 0.3 percentage point increase in other Asian economies.
To transform its economy and achieve sustainable development, China is now deepening reforms. For example, China has pledged to further shorten the negative list for foreign investment, lift all restrictions on the entry of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, and ensure national treatment for foreign companies.
On March 22, China’s Ministry of Commerce introduced the first negative list for cross-border trade in service sectors at the national level, with sectors not on the list being opened by default to foreign service providers on the same terms as domestic service providers.
China has also pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. Official data shows that the solar capacity installed in China accounts for almost half of the world’s capacity, the number of new energy vehicles (NEVs) registered in China accounts for more than half of the world’s, and at least 25 percent of the world’s foliage expansion since the early 2000s has come from China comes from. Zhao said that China’s green and low-carbon development creates a market for investment and consumption worth 10 trillion yuan (about 1.4 trillion) every year
dollars).
In addition, the Chinese economy is also growing rapidly due to technological innovations. At the just-ended China Development Forum, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said that the added value of China’s strategic emerging industries has increased from 7.6 percent of GDP a decade ago to more than 13 percent last year, that the scale of China’s digital Economy has exceeded 50 trillion yuan and that China even has 24 of the world’s top 100 science and innovation clusters.
“The potential of the huge Chinese market with over 1.4 billion people will be further developed,” said Zhao. “Investing in China is an investment in the future.”
Cooperation is crucial for global prosperity
Zhao also expressed optimism at the forum about the development of Asia, which he called the “most dynamic and promising” region in the world. But he warned that protectionism and a Cold War mentality are undermining some countries’ development efforts and moving the world toward driving division and confrontation.
A report released by the BFA Academy on Tuesday forecasts that the Asian economy will maintain a strong growth rate in 2024, accounting for 49 percent of global GDP, and the growth rate is expected to reach 4.5 percent.
Although growth in Asia could be pressured by a global economic slowdown, geopolitical conflicts and other factors, positive factors such as the acceleration of digital trade, the recovery of tourism and advances in regional economic integration such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will support Asian trade and give new impetus to investments, according to the report’s forecast.
Zhao stressed that peace is a prerequisite for Asia’s development in the face of interconnected and complex global security threats. He called on Asian nations to stand together, stand together against unilateralism and extreme selfishness, resist confrontation between different camps and prevent the region and the world from becoming an arena for geopolitical struggles.
At the 2022 Boao Forum, China proposed the Global Security Initiative, which promotes the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. In 2021, China proposed the Global Development Initiative, which promotes globalization, multilateralism and free trade to create a fair, balanced, open and inclusive world.
“No country is able to develop behind closed doors,” Zhao said, adding: “We must resist trade protectionism and all forms of barrier-building, decoupling or severing supply chains, instead we must embrace opportunities.” of opening up together and achieving win-win results through cooperation.”
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