China's reform path to boost global economic development, analysts say

China's commitment to deepening reform and opening-up is expected to support global economic recovery and "benefit the wider international community", according to analysts and industry executives.

They praised General Secretary Xi Jinping's remarks following the just-concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that Beijing will "open its door even wider", and that the nation will be steadfast in deepening reform and opening-up across the board and in pursuing high-quality development.

China's "continued economic development will benefit the wider international community", said Anna Malindog-Uy, vice-president for external affairs at the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute.

"China is the second-largest economy. It is the biggest, (most) viable and attractive market in the world," she told an online forum on Monday on the global impact of the CPC's 20th National Congress.

Malindog-Uy said China is a major trading partner to more than 100 countries, has established free trade pilot zones, and has signed many important free trade agreements including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, regarded as the world's biggest free trade pact.

She said that apart from being an important trade partner, China can also help developing countries in terms of technology transfer.

Zou Yonggang, CEO of Jiangsu Overseas Cooperation and Investment, said the move toward high-level opening up and high-quality cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative "has given a new impetus to our ambition" to develop the China-United Arab Emirates Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone into a model project of BRI cooperation between China and the UAE.

"The UAE's economic diversification plan is highly consistent with China's high-level opening up and development policy reaffirmed in the report (presented to the CPC congress). I believe there will be more and more Chinese companies coming to the UAE in years to come," Zou said.

The industrial zone has attracted attention as an important cooperation project between China and the UAE under the China-proposed BRI.

Xi, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC, said at Sunday's meeting with the media that a prosperous China will create more opportunities for the world.

"Just as China cannot develop in isolation from the world, the world needs China for its development," he said in a speech delivered at the Great Hall of the People.

Xi said that through more than 40 years of "relentless reform and opening-up", China has created the "twin miracles of fast economic growth and long-term social stability".

China's rapid growth has not only influenced its domestic market but also the global economy.

Herman Laurel, president of ACPh, said that whatever China envisions now will impact the world, noting China's contribution to the global economy.

"China presents a new model for leapfrogging economic development for emerging economies like the Philippines," Laurel said.

"From Xi's report at the 20th National Congress, we see the CPC's philosophy of the times, its open and unswerving attitude," said Khaled Al Shehhi, a UAE official adviser and international relations expert.

"The UAE hopes that with China we can conduct in-depth cooperation, especially in the fields of investment and talent expansion, so as to promote the economic diversification of the industry," he said.

Mustafa Hyder Sayed, executive director of the Pakistan-China Institute, said Xi demonstrated "strategic clarity in terms of China's rightful place in the world and how China will move toward achieving its rightful place in the world".

"And we see a more confident, a more assertive President Xi who can now determine the next decade of China's trajectory as a big power that is responsible, that is also interested in sharing the dividends of its development with its global and international partner countries," Sayed said.

Since China began to open and reform its economy in 1978, around 770 million rural residents had been lifted out of poverty by the end of 2020, accounting for 70 percent of the world's total lifted out of poverty during that period.

The Washington-based lender has noted that, in the past 40 years, China has made significant improvements in providing access to healthcare, education and other services.