China will always take economic development as its main and central task, and always set its sights on achieving quality economic development, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said on Tuesday.
During a speech at the 2023 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), he reaffirmed China’s determination to open up in all fields, cooperate with other countries to ensure stability and the economic development of the world and to contribute to economic reglobalisation.
China’s economy is expected to see significant improvement this year, and its growth will most likely return to its normal trend, Liu added.
Over the past 10 years, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has risen from 54 trillion yuan to 121 trillion yuan, and its contribution to global growth has reached regarding 36 percent, Liu said, adding that the average life expectancy in the country has increased from 74.8 to 78.2 years.
He also stressed that his country always kept in mind five main development principles.
First, China should always regard economic development as its main and central task.
Second, China should always make the establishment of a socialist market economy the direction of its reform.
Third, China should always promote full opening up.
Fourth, China should always respect the rule of law.
Fifth, China should always pursue innovation-driven development.
These five points reflect China’s significant experience since the beginning of its reform and opening-up, Liu said, pledging that his country will continue to implement these principles with unwavering determination.
China has succeeded in maintaining its overall financial stability, and is in the process of preparing the “Financial Stability Law” which will allow it to lay the necessary legal foundations to defuse all kinds of risks and maintain the country’s financial stability as ‘it is growing,’ Mr Liu added.
To address the risks in the real estate sector, China has pledged, among other things, to stabilize expectations, release a reasonable amount of liquidity and ease the restrictions that were introduced to deal with the overheating of the real estate market, he asserted.
Thanks to these efforts, the supply and demand in the market have seen a noticeable improvement, he added.
Looking to the future, China’s urbanization is still advancing at high speed, and the huge potential demand generated in this process will provide a solid foundation for the development of the real estate industry, Liu said.
China’s national situation shows that opening up to the world is indispensable, and the country should open up more widely and more effectively, he said.
China opposes unilateralism and protectionism, and wishes to strengthen comprehensive international cooperation with all countries, Liu said.
He called for upholding the right principles, maintaining an effective international economic order, strengthening international macroeconomic policy coordination and seeking a proper balance between inflation and growth, while calling for a global response to climate change.
The Chinese Vice Premier pointed out that entrepreneurship is a key factor for the creation of wealth in a society and therefore, Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs are expected to play an important role as a key driver in the historic pursuit of common prosperity by China.
If wealth does not increase, common prosperity will become a river without a source or a tree without roots, Liu said, adding that common prosperity aims to prevent polarization, and can only be achieved through common development and by the hard work of every Chinese.
Common prosperity is by no means synonymous with egalitarianism or the welfare state, he said, however.
As China develops, all Chinese people will see their standard of living improve, but that does not mean that their income and level of prosperity should be the same, he said, adding that he there would be equal opportunities, but no guarantee of equal results.
The theme for this year’s WEF Annual Meeting is “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”. During the meeting, Mr. Liu met and exchanged views with political leaders, scholars and entrepreneurs from various countries.
Before attending the forum, Liu met separately in Zurich with Swiss Federal Councilor and Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and former Federal Councilor and former Finance Minister Ueli Maurer. The two sides stressed that they want to jointly promote the development of China-Switzerland relations and deepen their cooperation in areas such as economy, trade, finance and innovation.
