Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sought to allay international concerns over the belt and road plan, reiterating that everything will be done in a transparent way.
“In pursuing Belt and Road cooperation, everything should be done in a transparent way, and we should have zero tolerance for corruption. The Beijing Initiative for Clean Silk Road has been launched, which represents our strong commitment to transparency and clean governance in pursuing Belt and Road cooperation,” he said in his keynote speech at the at the opening ceremony of the second Belt and Road Forum.
Xi said China is applying debt sustainability criteria recommended by the IMF. He also said the project is not exclusively benefiting China, and that it also helps to promote common development and prosperity. “The joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to enhance connectivity and practical cooperation. It is about jointly meeting various challenges and risks confronting mankind and delivering win-win outcomes and common development,” he said. “We need to be guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We need to act in the spirit of multilateralism, pursue cooperation through consultation and keep all participants motivated. We may, by engaging in bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation, fully tap into the strengths of all participants,” he reiterated.
Going forward, China will take a series of major reforms and opening-up measures and make stronger institutional and structural moves to boost higher quality opening-up, he said. “First, we will expand market access for foreign investment in more areas. Fair competition boosts business performance and creates prosperity. China has already adopted a management model based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list, and will continue to significantly shorten the negative list,” he said.
“Second, we will intensify efforts to enhance international cooperation in intellectual property protection. Full intellectual property protection will not only ensure the lawful rights and interests of Chinese and foreign companies, it is also crucial to promoting China’s innovation-driven and quality development,” the president said. “Third, we will increase the import of goods and services on an even larger scale. To meet our people’s ever-growing material and cultural needs and give our consumers more choices and benefits, we will further lower tariffs and remove various non-tariff barriers,” he added.
“Fourth, we will more effectively engage in international macro-economic policy coordination. A globalized economy calls for global governance. China will strengthen macro-policy coordination with other major economies to generate a positive spillover and jointly contribute to robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive global growth. China will not resort to the beggar-thy-neighbour practice of RMB devaluation. On the contrary, we will continue to improve the exchange rate regime, see that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation and keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level,” he continued. “Fifth, we will work harder to ensure the implementation of opening-up related policies. We are committed to implementing multilateral and bilateral economic and trade agreements reached with other countries. We will strengthen the building of a government based on the rule of law and good faith. A binding mechanism for honoring international agreements will be put in place. Laws and regulations will be revised and improved in keeping with the need to expand opening-up,” he added.
The Chinese president said that such measures to expand opening-up are a choice China has made by itself to advance its reform and development process. “It will promote high-quality economic development, meet the people’s desire for a better life, and contribute to world peace, stability and development,” he said. “We hope that other countries will also create an enabling environment of investment, treat Chinese enterprises, students and scholars as equals, and provide a fair and friendly environment for them to engage in international exchanges and cooperation,” he concluded.
