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China plays constructive role in tiding over global financial crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-02 13:50

China, as a responsible member of the international community, has been playing a constructive role in helping the world tide over the global financial crisis with its economic stimulus packages at home and positive policy initiatives abroad.

Faced with the grave impact of the financial crisis, China has committed to stabilizing its own economy, which will create trade and investment opportunities for its trading partners and international investors.

China has adopted a policy of expanding fiscal spending and monetary easing since the financial crisis. Late last year, the country unveiled a massive economic stimulus package worth more than $586 billion, aiming to stimulate domestic demand and spur economic growth.

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Angel Gurra, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said in March China's economic stimulus package would contribute to the world's economic growth.

Apart from domestic policies, China has also participated in regional and international initiatives aimed at tackling global economic woes.

China has stressed the need for concerted global action in tackling the economic downturn, which many believe is key to any economic recovery.

Stressing that the financial crisis cannot be dealt with by any single country, a Chinese diplomat reiterated the importance of international cooperation in the run-up to the G20 summit scheduled for April 1 in London.

The unusually severe financial crisis has provided an unusual opportunity for strengthening international cooperation, Fu Ying, Chinese ambassador to Britain, told reporters days before the G20 summit.

As the largest developing country in the world, China has been doing whatever it can to help the world overcome the financial crisis with bilateral and multilateral agreements, such as the currency swap deals it has clinched with some Asian countries.

Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said on the sidelines of an international forum held recently in Beijing that China had played a positive role in regional and international efforts to deal with the devastating effects of the financial crisis.

China has voiced support for increasing the financial resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to enable the institution to assist cash-starved developing countries in overcoming the crisis.

In addition, China remains a staunch supporter of free trade and investment at a time when an increasing number of countries have been tempted to resort to protectionist measures to cushion the negative impact of the crisis.

Setting up more trade and investment barriers cannot rescue the world economy. On the contrary, it runs the very risk of exacerbating world economic problems by destabilizing the multilateral trade framework which has been instrumental in ensuring steady economic growth in the years prior to the current crisis.

As the crisis roils major financial markets and threatens to derail global economic growth, China has engaged in the debate on reforming the international monetary system in efforts to minimize the chance that such crises would come back to haunt the world economy.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China's central bank, has recently joined the discussion about rebuilding the global monetary system by proposing to create a super sovereign reserve currency.

Zhou, like some officials in Russia, believed that the ongoing financial crisis highlighted the vulnerabilities of the current global monetary system based on national reserve currencies.

On top of all that it has done, China will continue to play a constructive role in helping the world ride out the global crisis. A timely economic recovery is not only important to the global economy, but also key to China's own economic success.