Pushing Opening Up to a Higher Level of Import | Products | Opening Up to the Outside World

At the recently concluded 14th Summer Davos Forum, China proposed to launch more practical and effective measures to promote high-level opening up. In the context of economic globalization facing setbacks and the world economy facing multiple risks, China's deepening of high-level opening up is an inevitable requirement for promoting its own development and reform, stabilizing the world economy, and promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.

From our own perspective, high-level openness is the only way for high-quality development. Openness is an important aspect of the new development concept. In the past, the development of the Chinese economy was achieved under open conditions, and in the future, high-quality development of the Chinese economy must also be achieved under more open conditions. In today's era, China's economy has been closely integrated with the world economy. Through high-level imports and exports, it can provide strong impetus for China's economic development. For example, by expanding the export of high-quality goods and services, it can not only drive economic growth but also encourage enterprises to continuously improve their international competitiveness; By expanding imports and making greater use of foreign investment, we can improve the quality and allocation level of production factors in China, and meet the growing needs of the people for a better life.

From a global perspective, high-level openness is an inevitable requirement for promoting the construction of an open world economy and building a community with a shared future for mankind. China is the world's second largest economy and the largest trading country in goods, attracting foreign investment and foreign investment, ranking among the top in the world. Whether our country is open or closed has a profound impact on the world economic and political landscape. Currently, the world is entering a new period of turbulence and transformation, and the open world economy is facing challenges. The international community's call for maintaining multilateralism and strengthening communication and cooperation is becoming stronger. In this situation, China is promoting high-level opening up, sharing the opportunities of China's large market, institutional opening up, and deepening international cooperation with all countries, and will work with most economies to maintain the openness and stability of the world economic system, making the contribution that a major country should make to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

The key to promoting opening-up on the new journey is to demonstrate a high level of proficiency. We can focus on this from five aspects.

One is to promote wider openness. At present, there is still a significant gap in regional openness in China. To open up on a larger scale, we need to consolidate the leading position of opening up in the eastern coastal areas, while leveraging the advantages of inland and border factor costs, market space, location conditions, etc., accelerate the promotion of trade and industrial transfer and agglomeration, cultivate more inland open highlands, improve the level of opening up along the border, further narrow the gap in regional opening up, and improve the new pattern of comprehensive opening up with linkage between land and sea, and mutual assistance between the east and the west.

The second is to promote wider openness in various fields. China has basically relaxed the access to foreign investment in the manufacturing industry, and should focus on expanding the opening up of the service industry, further reducing the negative list of foreign investment access in a reasonable manner. Implement the negative list of cross-border service trade in the pilot free trade zone and nationwide, and orderly promote the opening of related businesses in telecommunications, Internet, education, culture, medical care and other fields. At the same time, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, represented by digital technology, artificial intelligence, etc., is flourishing. It actively attracts international high-end elements such as talents, expands international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, and creates an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness. This is also an important direction for wider field openness.

The third is to promote deeper levels of openness. Mainly by comparing the relevant rules, regulations, management, and standards of high standard economic and trade agreements, deepening domestic reforms in related fields, and promoting institutional openness. Recently, the State Council issued a notice to pilot docking with international high standards in conditional free trade pilot zones and free trade ports, and promote institutional opening up. This fully reflects the trend of international rules, the needs of economic development, and the expectations of business entities. It is a practical lever to promote institutional openness in the future period and should be accelerated in implementation.

The fourth is to promote more proactive openness. Currently, protectionism and unilateralism are prevalent in some countries, advocating for "decoupling and disconnection" under the guise of security. The external suppression and containment we face may escalate at any time. In this situation, opening up to the outside world requires a more proactive approach. We should further promote the high-quality development of the "the Belt and Road", strive for greater space for China's opening up, and provide an international cooperation platform for countries to achieve joint discussion, joint construction and sharing. We should make expanding imports a long-term strategy, gather global goods, services, and technology through a strong domestic market, and create a gravitational field for high-end factor resources.

The fifth is to promote safer openness. China's development has entered a period of strategic opportunities and risks coexisting, with an increase in uncertain and unpredictable factors. The importance of preventing and resolving major risks and maintaining economic security has become more prominent. To achieve high-level opening up, it is necessary to enhance awareness of potential risks, adhere to bottom line thinking, solve the new security issues faced by opening up to the outside world under the new situation, ensure the security of food, energy resources, and important industrial and supply chains, strengthen the construction of overseas security guarantee capabilities, solve various contradictions and problems, and firmly defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests.