SEOUL — China has widened market access on a large scale and is further promoting high-level opening-up, visiting State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Dec 5.

Wang made the remarks when he attended an event joined by friendship personnel from all circles of South Korea during his two-day visit to Seoul.

"Not only have we over-fulfilled all the commitments we made when we joined the World Trade Organization, we have also further reduced the average tariff to 7.5 percent, much lower than that of developing countries and emerging economies," Wang said, adding that China's business environment ranking has jumped from the 78th to the 31st place over the past two years.

China has largely lowered the threshold of market access, fully opened the manufacturing industry and is accelerating the opening-up of the service industry, he said.

China will implement the new foreign investment law starting from Jan 1 next year so as to provide a better investment environment for foreign investors, Wang added.

In terms of China's economic achievements, Wang said that China has made great contributions to the world's development while realizing its own development. "China's contribution rate to world economic growth has remained above 30 percent for many years, becoming the main engine of global growth."

Wang noted that China has lifted 850 million people out of poverty, contributing more than 70 percent to world poverty reduction. Meanwhile, China cut its carbon emissions by 45.8 percent in 2018 compared to that in 2005, which honored its commitment to the international community ahead of schedule and made great contributions to combating climate change, he added.