Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua addressed the opening ceremony of the 21st China International Fair for Investment & Trade (CIFIT) in Xiamen, East China’s Fujian province, on Sept 8.

Hu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, noted that President Xi Jinping has stressed many times that China will unswervingly expand opening-up, and gave clear instructions for hosting CIFIT.

The Chinese government also has taken a slew of opening-up measures in recent years, which greatly boosted two-way investment development and closely tied economic exchanges and cooperation with other countries, said Hu. With the evolving global pandemic and a daunting economic recovery, international investment and trade faces many uncertainties, and only by expanding mutual opening-up and strengthening win-win cooperation, can all countries cope with common challenges and achieve common prosperity, he added.

He also stressed that Chinese governments, based on a new development phase, will open up to the world on a larger scale, in wider areas and at deeper levels by fully leveraging the positive role of foreign investment in constructing new development patterns, relaxing market access points and creating high-level opening-up platforms.

The Belt and Road cooperation will be expanded in scope and depth, and pragmatic cooperation with the countries involved should be intensified, he said. While stabilizing cooperation in traditional sectors with foreign investment, new areas and spaces for investment cooperation should also be explored vigorously, the vice-premier said.

He said China will also align itself with high-standard international market rules, improve the management system of pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list, continue to improve the quality and standardized levels for serving foreign investment to create a secure business environment for foreign enterprises.

Hu also visited local foreign-invested enterprises during his trip in Xiamen.