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Xi's remarks at symposium bolster firms' confidence, say execs, experts China's move from export-driven growth to promoting the integration
of the domestic and overseas markets reflects the country's shift to
nurturing new edges in global competitiveness and fostering high-quality
development despite the headwinds it faces, experts and business
executives said on Wednesday. China needs to give full play to the advantages of its ultra-large
domestic market and work toward a new model of development in which the
domestic economic network takes the primary role, with the domestic and
international economic networks complementing each other, President Xi
Jinping told senior business executives from domestic and foreign
companies at a symposium on Tuesday. Xi said the country will open up wider to the outside world during
the process, fully unleash the potential of its domestic demand, enable
better connectivity between the domestic and international markets and
give priority to innovation in science and technology. Wuhan Guide Infrared Co Chairman Huang Li, who attended the
symposium, said: "Despite headwinds such as the mounting backlash
against globalization, China is still open-minded to embrace the outside
world and will continue to stick to opening up, which will inject new
impetus into future growth." "In the next step, we must continue to pursue high-quality
development, give priority to technological innovation and master core
technologies," Huang added. Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Chinese tech giant Lenovo, agreed,
saying that the meeting has shown that the government attaches greater
importance to boosting the confidence of market entities. "China's new development plan to combine the construction of the
domestic market system with the expansion of international markets will
not only help strengthen the resilience of its economic development, but
also provide huge growth opportunities for the world economy," Yang
said.
"More efforts should be made to promote the development of digitization, automation and intelligence in manufacturing." Under the previous export-oriented mode of growth, China grew its
economy into the world's second-largest through low-cost factory
production. It's now time for the country to move on, said Cui Fan, a
professor of international trade at the University of International
Business and Economics in Beijing. Xi's remarks suggest that the country is moving toward the next stage
of development through deepening reforms and opening-up, which will
further integrate China into the world economy, Cui said. "China does not deny the importance of opening-up. In fact, the
country is pursuing a new development plan, focusing on its domestic
market and meeting domestic needs," Cui said. "Foreign investment is playing a key role in connecting the domestic
and international markets. Once China establishes a unified, open and
complete domestic market system, both domestic and foreign companies
will be able to achieve greater efficiency and gain a key competitive
edge in the global market, which will further prove China's capabilities
to attract foreign capital and achieve better connectivity between the
domestic and international markets," Cui said. "The source of China's competitive advantages is shifting from
low-cost labor to an ultra-large domestic market and its huge market
demand. Therefore, a growing number of market-seeking and high-end
foreign manufacturers are gearing up to enter the China market." Cui said China will definitely choose not to close its doors, but
will open up wider to the outside world, by taking steps such as
continuously shortening the negative list for foreign investment access.
"More efforts are needed to deepen supply-side structural reforms and
create a better business environment." Clarke Murphy, CEO of global executive search and assessment firm
Russell Reynolds Associates, said the company sees enormous potential in
the Chinese market. "We have been very dedicated to China for the past
decades and will continue to be, particularly as the world is smaller
and more interconnected." "The Chinese market and relationships with Chinese companies are very
important to the global economy. Sophisticated global investors will
always want to be successful in China. The fact that China would create
more markets and more industry segments for foreign investment will be
encouraging to global investors, and younger Chinese executives want to
be part of global enterprises so they can learn and grow themselves,"
Murphy added. Leon Wang, global biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca's international
executive vice-president and its president in China, said the company
has confidence in China's investment environment and development
prospects. "In the face of the unprecedented challenges caused by the global
epidemic, AstraZeneca is always optimistic about China's strong economic
potential," Wang said. According to Wang, AstraZeneca will continue to support China's
development through actions, play an active role as a bridge for
multinational pharmaceutical companies in the field of healthcare, and
help achieve the "Healthy China 2030" initiative, and help Chinese
innovation to go global.
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