Chinese President Xi Jinping"s scheduled attendance at an upcoming G20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders" Meeting will boost global economic development and regional cooperation. Xi will fly to Antalya, Turkey to attend the G20 summit from Nov. 14 to 16 and then fly to Manila in the Philippines to attend the APEC meeting from Nov. 17 to 19. Within the context of both opportunities and challenges for the world economy, the president"s six-day tour is also expected to show China"s confidence in its economic development and openness for win-win cooperation. NEW CONSENSUS ON GROWTH The tenth G20 summit in Antalya comes at a time when the world economy is facing various problems including a slowdown in growth, differentiated policies, transition and changes, and increasing uncertainty. After the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, China and other emerging economies and developing countries had served as the locomotive for world economic growth for several years. Since the beginning of this year, however, emerging economies have witnessed decelerating growth while developed countries are facing increasing uncertainty in raising interest rates. Meanwhile, the G20, a leading international cooperation forum representing nearly 80 percent of global trade, has entered a crucial moment for its transition from a mechanism of addressing risks to long-term economic governance. Against this backdrop, the group, as a main platform for global economic cooperation, will attract worldwide attention due to its plan for the global economy"s continuous recovery and solid growth. "The participation of President Xi at the G20 summit shows the high attention that China pays to the G20 cooperation," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong told a press briefing Tuesday. "It also reflects that China is ready to work with all countries to jointly promote world economic growth, enhance global economic governance and forge ahead with economic reform and transition," Li said. During the summit, Xi will attend all formal events and elaborate his views on the world economic situation, advance cooperation to address challenges, and jointly explore new impetus for economic growth. As China will be the host country of the G20 summit in 2016, he will also talk about general ideas regarding the meeting. Prior to the summit, Xi will attend a meeting of leaders of BRICS countries, a thriving cooperation mechanism that groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and deliver a speech to call for more collaboration and communication within BRICS and common development. Experts said that amid the rapid development of emerging economies and developing nations, most countries have agreed to the principle of establishing an international mechanism, observing international regulations, and pursuing international justice. "The whole world is looking forward to President Xi Jinping"s attendance at the G20 summit in Antalya," said Chen Fengying, head of the World Economy Research Center at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. China is expected to offer a plan and make contributions to boosting the steady and healthy growth of the global economy, Chen said.
GUIDANCE FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION At the G20 summit, the upcoming APEC leaders" meeting in Manila will also focus on the "inclusiveness" of world economic growth. The similarity in themes of the two meetings shows that both the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole are facing the same challenges, Chen said. Regional development is a long-term, arduous task for APEC, the highest-level and most influential trade and economic forum in the region, whose economic integration faces new opportunities as well as challenges. Over the past year, both bilateral and multilateral free trade talks have made headway in the Asia-Pacific. On June 1, China signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, the largest bilateral free trade deal for China in terms of trade volume. Earlier this week, the Australian Senate passed legislations surrounding the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), clearing the final hurdle to enact the agreement signed in June. Negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade pact involving the 10-member ASEAN and six other countries, including China, have also entered a crucial phase. In addition, the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released last Thursday, one month after 12 Pacific Rim countries inked the deal on the largest free trade area in the world. At the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders" Meeting in Beijing last November, APEC member economies decided to approve a roadmap for promoting the process of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), aimed at consolidating regional integration and defining long-term development goals. Once established, the FTAAP, the largest FTA in the world, can not only avoid the "spaghetti bowl" dilemma, but also unleash much greater economic vigor than other regional trade arrangements. If completed, it will add an estimated 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars of output to the global economy. Ken Waller, director of the Australian APEC Study Center at RMIT University, said that for the regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific, it is important to push forward the establishment of the FTAAP. In Manila, Xi will expound China"s policy on cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and the implementation of the consensus reached in the Beijing APEC meeting. He will also address the progress on the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative), and the opportunities the China-proposed initiative will bring to the region and the world. During the upcoming APEC meeting, the president and other leaders in the region are expected to discuss the prospects of regional development, win-win cooperation, and the future-oriented partnership among regional economies, Chen said.
NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT As China is the largest developing nation and the second-largest economy in the world, any major development in the formulation of its socio-economic policies will definitely arouse worldwide attention. China"s development has been gradually integrated into and interwoven with that of the rest of the world, while the world"s development is also related to the Chinese people"s dream for a better future. During the annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York in late September, Xi advocated an equitable, open, all-round and innovation-driven development path to relieve poverty worldwide. Moreover, a recently released proposal on China"s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), adopted at a plenary session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in late October, sets a target of "maintaining medium-high growth" for the country, highlighting the ideas of innovation, coordination, green development, opening-up and sharing to fulfill its goals. At the upcoming G20 summit and APEC meeting, Xi will brief participants on the proposal and expound on China"s policies and measures to comprehensively deepen reform and advance economic restructuring and upgrading. "China is still the largest contributor to the world economic growth," Chen said. Countries across the globe are looking forward to strengthening cooperation with China, so as to share more dividends from the Asian giant"s reform and development. Over the next couple of years, the international community will still expect China"s sustainable development, hoping that the country will act as an engine for the world economic recovery. In the meantime, China will further integrate into and achieve win-win results with the rest of the world. Just as Xi put it in a speech during his visit to Britain last month, by injecting fresh vitality into and bringing more opportunities for common development with other countries, China"s development will undoubtedly be part of the trend of world development.
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