China opens doors wider to common prosperity

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01:55

‍Several sidebar forums made it a busy first day at the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Domestic and overseas politicians, scholars, and business leaders shared their views on how economic globalization could be carried forward.

Trade and Opening, one of three parallel sessions on the Import Expo's first day, stirred up some lively discussions. Speakers shared thoughts on how to promote economic globalization given many challenges arising from protectionism and nationalism.

“Our job is to find the remedies to bring ourselves together, at least to mitigate and to possibly overcome the worst risks. To ensure the best prosperous or to only secure the livable, we must consider the worst ones,” Mats Karlsson, a senior researcher from Sweden, said.

Stepan Kubiv, the first vice prime minister from Ukraine, believed that "China is Ukraine's most prioritized partner for economic cooperation, and bilateral trade over the last eight months has grown 21 percent and is hoped to reach 10 billion US dollars in the near future.“

Political leaders and heads of international organizations remain confident in China's efforts to address these global challenges.

“We also strongly praise China's Belt and Road Initiative," a diplomat from Tonga said, "through which we can seize untapped opportunities in trade and tourism."

Other guests at the forum considered China's continued opening up will facilitate and help strengthen their nations' economies while yielding maximum benefits for their people.

Edward Boateng, Ghana's ambassador to China, speaks to CGTN. /CGTN Photo

According to Edward Boateng, Ghana's ambassador to China, China's development provides their country with an alternative. ”Our lead crop in Ghana has been cocoa, and our trade for the last years was just with European countries and the US. China today provides us with an alternative market. That's why we are here.”

Akbana Shkurta, Albania's deputy minister of finance and economy, said: "Recently we've had a lot of trade exchanges with China, but mostly importing from China. The openness of trade represents a lot of opportunities for Albania as well, especially for food products.”

Opening up, innovation and investment are the words most frequently mentioned at the Hongqiao forum, reflecting obviously that at a time when the world economy is undergoing changes and uncertainties, we need more globalization and openness so that countries can benefit from each other.