What topics of China's 'two sessions' command global attention?(2)

RAISING ALL BOATS

This year marks the 45th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. How China will continue to open up its door means a lot for both itself and the wider world, particularly at a time when the economic globalization is under serious pressure.

The reform and opening-up has prompted the Chinese economy to grow at high rates over decades, with a giant leap in per capita income and living standards, Lewis M. Ndichu, a researcher at Nairobi-based think tank Africa Policy Institute, told Xinhua.

The expert said he believes that during this year's "two sessions," there will be much deliberation concerning how to continue to expand opening up, lift market confidence and defuse major risks.

Noting that China's Ministry of Commerce has pledged to fully resume offline trade fairs and support Chinese enterprises to go global, among other policies, Koh Chin Yee, president of Singapore's South Seas Society, said that many business delegations of Chinese local governments have recently headed to Singapore in search of new opportunities for trade and investment, attesting to China's commitment to further strengthening foreign cooperation.

From holding such international fairs as China International Import Expo and Canton Fair and pushing forward free trade projects like the Hainan Free Trade Port, to joining multilateral mechanisms such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership ... China is opening its door wider, further expanding international cooperation and sharing its development dividends with the rest of the world.

From the perspective of an exporter, Nicolas Perinetti, export manager for Asia at Argentina's Casarena winery, noted that China's import categories have been increasing in parallel with the expansion of its economic openness.

Noting that products of agricultural trade between Argentina and China have extended from grains to fruits, meat, wine, etc., Perinetti believes the trade of goods with higher added value will help boost Argentina's economic development.

China's further opening-up in the new era has caught high attention from the international community, said Yuri Tavrovsky, a professor of the Russian University of Peoples' Friendship. He has long been following China's development and published in 2017 the book One Belt, One Road: Traveling Westward.

Noting this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Tavrovsky said how the initiative will foster common development of the partner countries is also an interesting topic to which he has paid much heed.

Over the past decade, China has signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements with 151 countries and 32 international organizations in the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits.

Take Uzbekistan, one of the first countries joining the BRI. It has collaborated with China in multiple major projects such as the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline and the Qamchiq Tunnel on the Angren-Pap railway line.

The initiative acts as a crucial venue to consolidate cooperation through infrastructure connecting land and sea; simultaneously, it is becoming an important platform for global economic growth, said Azamat Seitov, a scholar of Uzbekistan's University of World Economy and Diplomacy, who hopes that new measures to be declared at the "two sessions" will bring new opportunities to expand cooperation between the two countries.