Premier Li Keqiang and leaders of six major international financial institutions jointly chaired the third “1+6” roundtable meeting in Beijing on Nov 6.

The leaders highly valued the reform and development of China’s economy around the topic of promoting a win-win strategy in cooperation between the economies of China and the world.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim fully affirmed China’s outstanding achievements in improving its business environment.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde praised China’s progress in rebalancing its economic structure.

International Labor Organization Deputy Director-General for Policy Deborah Greenfield thought highly of the outstanding increases in its employment.

Quantitative growth, qualitative development

Referring to the newly released Doing Business Report 2019 by the World Bank, Kim said that China ranks 46th for its business environment, moving up 32 places. Meanwhile, China has made substantial improvements in seven fields out of 10, according to statistics from the World Bank.

Kim said that China’s continuing facilitation of structural reform and improvements in the environment for investment and doing business are not only beneficial to its domestic market entities, but also conducive to foreign investment.

He said he had faith in China’s fulfillment of its economic expectations.

Despite slowing down, Lagarde said, China’s economic growth is no longer driven forward by industry or investment. Instead, the service industry and consumption have risen to become major drivers.

China’s economy has been developing both in quantity as well as in quality, Lagarde said.

She added that China’s economic development retains laudable balance, with its opening-up and internationalization moving forward with great momentum.

Achievements in reform and opening-up

Greenfield extended her congratulations on China’s remarkable achievements, saying that in the first three quarters of this year, China has seen an increase of 6.7 percent in its economy, with 11 million urban and rural new jobs created and 18,000 enterprises registered every day.

The rapid development in the digital economy gave rise to a great number of new jobs, Greenfield said. Of the employed population, 9.7 percent are working in the sector. “Without question, China is leading the world in the digital economy,” she said.

Mark Carney, chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), spoke highly of China’s achievements in opening local bond markets, reducing risks in the shadow banking system, and reforming the financial supervision system.

Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said that over the past 40 years, China made the decision of reform and opening-up and continuously promoted the course, which resulted in large benefits.

Over the past 40 years, China’s imports have increased from less than $14 billion to nearly $2 trillion. It was a tremendous feat, said Roberto Azevedo, director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO). He said he was delighted that WTO participated in the historical course.

Largest market with huge potential

China will continue to strengthen reform and expand opening-up, Premier Li promised at the press conference on Nov 6.

“Forty years of reform and opening-up witnessed a shared development of China and the world. It made great contributions to human peace and development, while promoting its own development,” the Premier said. He also quoted President Xi Jinping’s speech at the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo, saying that China’s door will open wider, and China will not stop its efforts to pursue higher-quality opening-up.

Premier Li said that China will maintain the continuity of its economic policies and refrain from resorting to a deluge of strong stimulus policies. Besides investment and exports, proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy will be implemented to strengthen regulation.

China will further promote administration streamlining, tax cuts, fee reductions, and take effective measures to alleviate financing difficulties and reduce financing costs for private enterprises and SMEs, the Premier promised.

He also said that the Chinese government will further ease market access for private economy and increase opening-up of the service industry and financial industry to create a fair business environment for State-owned enterprises, private enterprises, and foreign companies, further energizing market entities and stimulating social creativity.

China has the world’s largest market, which contains huge potential for China’s economy, and it also has the most abundant human resources in the world, which provides the biggest support for its economy, Premier Li said.

The fundamentals for long-term growth of China’s economy has not changed, he said, adding that in the process of promoting multilateralism and free trade for an open world economy, China’s development will become an opportunity shared by the international community, which will achieve steady recovery and inclusive growth around the world.