Wei Jianguo: This year’s Davos Forum is an important turning point for globalization

The theme of this year’s World Economic Forum “Creating a shared future in a fractured world”, and China’s proposal of “building a common community of shared future for all mankind” have received unprecedented popularity worldwide.

South Daily invited elites from all walks of life to discuss globalization by launching its annual topic “My Globalization” during the Fortune Global Forum held in Guangzhou last year. In 2018, South Daily will take the newly-held Davos Forum as a starting point to bring you a more focused and innovative column “My Globalization”.

The 2018 World Economic Forum was recently concluded. The theme of this forum, “Creating a shared future in a fractured World," is seen as an extension and inheritance of China’s initiative of “building a common community of shared future for all mankind.” Many leaders from India, the United Arab Emirates and other countries echoed these two proposals in the forum.

  “This year’s Davos forum is an important turning point for globalization,” said Wei Jianguo, Vice Chairman of China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former Vice Minister of Commerce, told South Daily on 28th January. More and more countries begin to realize that the proposal of “building a common community of shared future for all mankind”, advocated by China is the new direction of globalization in the future. The “China Wisdom, China’s Solution and China’s Contribution” have received more recognition, praise and support than ever.

Wei Jianguo believes that in the process of promoting “China’s Wisdom, China’s Solutions, and China’s Contributions”, Guangdong has taken the lead and made a lot of effort to create the best business environment of the world and gained new achievements in China’s further reform and opening up.

  “Building a common community of shared future for all mankind” is the new direction of globalization

South Daily: At the Davos Forum held a year ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech, saying that as long as we firmly establish the awareness of building a common community of shared future for all mankind, work together, help each other and overcome the difficulties, we can surely make the world a better place and bring people more happiness. How does the theme of this year’s Davos Forum echo this proposal?

Wei Jianguo: The Davos forum of this year is an important turning point for globalization. China has achieved very good results in the past year with an annual GDP growth of 6.9%, exceeding global expectations. However, we also see that Trump has reiterated in Davos that the United States welcomes all countries to invest in the United States and develop the U.S. economy, in return, the United States will bring more benefits to the world.

More and more countries and people have realized that the “protectionism” of the US alone can no longer promote the development of globalization. In particular, the “business type transactions” promoted by Trump, and “priced globalization” are incompatible with the development of the entire world. On the contrary, the proposal of “building of a common community of shared future for all mankind”, advocated by China is the new direction for the development of globalization in the future.

The theme of the Davos Forum this year can be seen as an extension of the proposal “building a common community of shared future for mankind”, made by China last year. Furthermore, Leaders from France, Germany, India, the United Arab Emirates and other countries agree with this new direction. There are more countries recognize, appreciate and support the Belt and Road project. I believe that there will be more countries to accept “China’s wisdom, China’s solution, and China’s contribution.”

South Daily: What kind of inspiration will “China’s wisdom, China’s solution and China’s contribution” bring to the world?

Wei Jianguo: At present, the new order of global development and the new governance have not yet taken shape, while the old order, old momentum and old thinking still exist. Therefore, the world is watching if the new order and new solutions proposed by China can lead the global development.

However, China has clearly proposed that more new policies for reform and opening up that exceed international expectation will be launched. Only through all-round reform and opening up will China be able to provide more development opportunities for the world. China’s proposal, China’s solution and China’s wisdom will be accepted by more developing and developed countries. By doing so, China will improve its leadership and attractiveness in the international community.

The Belt and Road Initiative brings an unprecedented new opening to China

South Daily: The Belt and Road Initiative has gained more recognition from different countries, how should we further promote the initiative in the future?

Wei Jianguo: As a new platform for global development cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative has set a new opening-up that China has never seen before. China welcomes not only countries along the route but also those countries located outside of the region. China and other countries will work together to make rapid and high-quality development, and the dividend received will help us to promote the building of a common community of shared future for all mankind. So far, there are more and more countries engaged in this project.

In the future, the building of the Belt and Road will be even faster and better than the previous two years. We will pay more attention to development quality and the interests of the people along the route. In particular, we are expecting to make significant progress in the areas of infrastructure improvements such as ports, airports, railways and highways.

In the next step, the most important thing is to speed up the implementation of the landmark projects that China has already agreed with countries along the Belt and Road region.

Launching new policy to create the world’s best business environment

South Daily: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Central Financial Leading Group Office, revealed at this year’s Davos forum that China will launch a new policy of reform and opening up that exceeds international expectations. What do you think the new policy should focus on?

Wei Jianguo: Speaking of China’s reform and opening up, the world’s enterprises are most concerned about three aspects. First, the entry barriers. Therefore, we should focus on the realization of the “three equal rights” namely, equal rights, equal rules and equal opportunities. At the 19th Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, the leaders made it clear that all enterprises in China will be treated equally. This is the “equal rights.” However, this is not enough. We should also have the equal rules for all enterprises operating in China to ensure all enterprises have the equal opportunities to participate in the Belt and Road project and in the economic development of China. Second, bureaucracy still exists in some areas of government services. Lastly, the protection of intellectual property is inadequate and we need to work on that.

In general, the core of the current reform and opening up is to create the best business environment. We need to maintain the stability of our policies, continually improve our business investment so that all the companies in China can remain confident about China’s future, and push for more high-level reform and opening up through new policies.

China’s new reform and opening up starts in Guangdong

South Daily: In the process of building a common community of shared future for all mankind, promoting the new globalization and further opening up, what are the opportunities and advantages for Guangdong? What areas should Guangdong focus on at the beginning?

Wei Jianguo: China’s reform and opening up started in southern China years ago and Guangdong has always been the vanguard. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, Guangdong should give full play to its own advantages and must aim to create the best business environment. Let the new achievements of China’s reform and opening up start in Guangdong.

The spirit of reform and opening up has been implemented in the Cantonese people and now, Guangdong is facing the best opportunities. Guangdong should build the best business environment by providing outstanding services.

In particular, the great bay area of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau will become an outstanding model of complementary and coordinated development in the next 5-10 years. In the future, this area will not only bring into play the institutional advantages of the “one country, two systems”, but also make the best use of the complementarities in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology, finance, culture, education and humanities. As a city clustering, they will participate in the Chinese economy development and even become the leader of the process.