Strengthening global policy coordination to fuel economic growth

Zhu Guangyao, China's vice Finance Minister, delivers a speech during the tenth Asia Europe Economic Forum, which was held at Renmin University on September 21-22, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The tenth Asia Europe Economic Forum was held at Renmin University on September 21 and 22, 2016. Zhu Guangyao, China's vice Finance Minister, addressed the importance of implementing the consensuses that was achieved during this year's G20 summit, especially on facilitating the global economic recovery and the stability of financial markets.

Celebrating its 10 year anniversary, six institutes and think tanks co-hosted the forum this year: The Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Bertelsmann Foundation, Brugel, Center for East Asian Studies of Korea University (CEAS), Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII) and Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University (RDCY).

The forum occurred right after the G20 summit so attending members could discuss how countries all over the world could enhance global governance and coordinate macro-economic policies within the G20 framework.

Viviane Reding, the former Vice-president of the European Commission, emphasized building an open world economy and multilateralism during her speech. She also said that a significant characteristic of globalization is the value chain's internationalization and that trade protectionism would definitely cost every economy.

"Actually trade is not like the zero-sum game, we have much more common interests than conflicts. Obstacles need to be demolished. Multilateralism deserves real efforts to be paid. Hence Chinese government should encourage more domestic corporations to go abroad, and correspondingly allow more foreign companies and institutes to invest in China, fairly compete with local players," she further explained.

Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao described this forum as a serious discussion and implementation of the "Hangzhou Consensus". He responded to President Reding's speech initially by saying that China is also dedicated to pursuing common interests along with countries all over the world, and her suggestions would be valued highly.