Daily Times

President Xi delivered a pre-recorded keynote speech at Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit 2021. He stressed the need for renewed commitment for sustainable development and building a shared future for the Asia Pacific Community. He announced that China would give equal treatment to all market entities and build an open market system for orderly competition. He claimed that China was adamant to enable China as a safe and attractive investment destination.

APEC has become an enabler of economic cooperation among 21 economies in the Asia Pacific Region since 1989. This CEO summit is part of APEC Economic Leaders Week 2021 hosted and Chaired by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

President described the recent steps taken by China to improve the implementing process of anti-independence laws and to regulate certain laws concerning domestic industries. He announced that China was ready to take measures needed for the healthy development of the Chinese market economy and asserted that all states should adhere to popular market practices of multilateralism. China is tirelessly working to integrate and develop the public sector and taking initiatives to promote, support and direct non-public sector development.

China is going to make continuous efforts to strengthen the foundation for long-term economic development and provide better investment safety for Asian-Pacific and international businesses to invest and start trading with China. In his speech, Xi called on major economies in the region to “look and March forward” and “oppose discriminative and exclusive acts.” He further stressed that there would be no future to draw lines and build regional compartments driven by ideology and geopolitical ambitions. The Asia-Pacific region cannot and should not go back to the state of confrontation and division of the Cold War era.

The Asia-Pacific region cannot and should not go back to the state of confrontation and division of the Cold War era.

President Xi also explained the intertwined relationship between economic development and green transformation, calling for a coordinated and holistic approach to promote green and low-carbon development. Without development and growth, we cannot allocate enough economic resources to sustain the green transformation.

If people are excluded and neglected from climate policy mechanisms, states will not be able to achieve a significant degree of green transformation. China vows to introduce a series of measures to facilitate the comprehensive green transformation in economic and social development in the upcoming 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and beyond. China has pledged to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities vow to follow a people-centred philosophy for development. After eradicating absolute poverty and securing a landmark victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the country is intensifying efforts to promote high-quality development that intends to bring common prosperity for all. In this regard, President Xi called for openness and cooperation from all partners to the unified end, shared future of mankind. He appreciated the three-decades-old historic cooperation between APEC by the adoption of Bogor Goals, Putrajaya Vision, high standard Free Trade Areas, and macroeconomic policy coordination to sustain the rapid development and remarkable growth. This has only become possible because all the partners have the will and collectively endeavoured to establish an open business environment and enable strong partnerships through confidence-building measures, inclusiveness, and cooperation and win-win policies.

President XI appreciated the APEC for holding standards of multilateralism and warned against evil forces of unilateralism that might impede development in the world. He was of the view that even if global economic conditions go towards unilateralism and trade protectionism by the US, regional countries in the APEC must not pay attention to it. It is the only way to keep their forces of resilience and cooperation intact and move forward with broadmindedness notwithstanding any fabric of competition. If they can reject practices of exclusion, extremism and ideological instincts, there will be no winner in the world but APEC countries.

In the same dimension, President Xi added a new angle of innovation in boosting the development across the region. Innovation is such a crucial force behind the development that the region would not progress without innovation or even slow innovation. Since the APEC has extensive resources for innovation, it has created many new technologies and industrial equipment but there is a need to bring innovation in the integration and administration of joint economic activity. As the world is passing through industrial and technological transformation, APEC needs to speed up research and development in this regard. In the end, President Xi stressed the need to build an Asia-Pacific.

The writer is the Founder (Friends of Belt and Road Initiative Forum)