“China will strive to enhance the performance of economic growth”, President Xi highlights from the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos

President Xi Jinping at World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Destination: Davos Klosters.

The first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) began with the opening plenary with Xi Jinping yesterday, President of the People’s Republic of China, monopolizing the interest of the global economic status quo convening these days at the Swiss Alps. This was the first time ever a Chinese President accepts the Davos invite and naturally all the entire world was watching. The Chinese leader addressed the world economy in the framework of economic globalisation.

A main point of the President’s speech was that only through economic globalisation may the world be able to achieve high growth rates and prosperity of its people and that protectionism is locking nations to its own narrow borders, limiting the true potential of the global economic growth.

Globalization is the key

President Xi’s speech was undoubtedly in favor of economic globalization. As he stated, at the beginning China was not sure about the impact of globalisation but concluded that it is the right way in order to achieve greater growth through scientific and technological advances. More specifically, President Xi stated: “There was a time when China also had doubts about economic globalization. But we came to the conclusion that integration into the global economy is a historical trend. Therefore, China took a brave step to embrace the global market. It has proved to be a right strategic choice.”

How to increase global growth

As global economy continues to be sluggish, President Xi stressed out the main issues why the economy is heading downwards. The lack of adequate driving forces that could lead to global growth, together with inefficient global economic governance and unequal development are the main roots of slow economic growth, according to the Chinese President.

However, global economy could be boosted through an innovation-driven growth model with honest governance and global cooperation.

China again leads the world economy

Xi Jinping mentioned how China has met challenges and managed to deal with difficulties through reforms and opening-up widely to the world economy pursuing a wide array of opportunities. By doing so, China has experienced high growth rates providing prosperity to its people and to the rest of the world.

More in detail, the President of the People’s Republic of China said during his speech at Davos underscored: “Since it launched reform and opening-up, China has attracted over $1.7 trillion of foreign investment and made over $1.2 trillion of direct outbound investment, making huge contribution to global economic development. In the years following the outbreak of the international financial crisis, China contributed to over 30 percent of global growth every year on average.”

It seems that the Chinese economy will keep on expanding steadily according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which upgraded China’s 2017 growth forecast to 6.5%, 0.3% higher that IMF’s October forecast. What is more, the new model that China is following based on its consumption and services sector is holding up as the overall growth rate will eventually meet the government’s target.

No protectionism

The Chinese leader said no to protectionism answering to U.S president-elect Donald Trump regarding the latter’s accusations that China is an abuser of free trade deals. Furthermore, Xi mentioned that all countries should achieve inter-connected growth and all must promote free trade and investment agreements since China has become the second largest economy in the world by implementing this strategy.

Thus, China welcomes every nation to do business in a globalized world in order to drive growth rates up and bring prosperity to every person by reducing hunger, poverty and unemployment globally.

China’s economic growth: No1 priority

The presence of the President Xi in the WEF 2017 was of crucial importance for China given that he is the first Chinese president to attend Davos promoting a powerful China, at the same time that Europe and the U.S. face a great deal of political and economic uncertainty. The absence of Donald Trump from this economic event makes the Chinese President’s attendance even more prominent.

Xi showed that China’s development is a great opportunity for the world, clearly urging all countries to trade with China and pay attention to the country’s interests. The latter, given China’s impact on the world economy, could hopefully turn around the sluggish global economic outlook for 2017.