Finding new sources of growth, common task

President Xi urges all parties to work to build an innovative, open economy

China will work together with all parties to make the G20 Hangzhou summit prescribe remedies for the world economy to achieve robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, President Xi Jinping said on Saturday.

All parties at the summit should work to build an innovative and open world economy to explore new sources of growth and expand the space for development, Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Business 20 Summit in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

The B20 helps international companies and commercial organizations participate in global economic governance and the making of economic and trade regulations, as it collects the opinions of world business leaders and develops a consensus.

Xi said China is standing at a new starting point for comprehensively deepening reform and injecting new impetus in economic and social development, adapting to the new normal of economic development and transforming its economic development mode.

Proceeding from this new starting point, China will unswervingly deepen reform in a comprehensive manner, implement an innovation-driven development strategy, pursue green growth, deliver more benefits to the people and further open-up and interact with the world, Xi said.

The world economy should become more interconnected and inclusive, and join forces for win-win solutions, Xi added.

More than 800 business leaders gathered in Hangzhou for the B20 Summit this year, and the B20 has submitted more than 400 policy recommendations in various fields, including reform of the financial system, trade, investment, energy, infrastructure, employment, finance and anti-corruption.

He Yafei, former vice-minister of foreign affairs, said the G20 Summit has already started to transition from a crisis-response mechanism to one of long-term economic governance, with its focus switching from cyclical policy to structural policy and coordination of macroeconomic policies.

Tian Huifang, a senior researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said there is a strong demand for infrastructure investment in a large number of developing countries to accelerate their industrialization and urbanization.

World Bank studies show that the current annual infrastructure investment in developing countries is about $1 trillion. To maintain current economic growth and meet future needs, at least $1 trillion more investment on an annual basis will be needed until 2020.

Fu Chengyu, former chairman of the State-owned Sinopec Group, the country's largest oil refiner, said when it comes to developing countries, infrastructure, education, health and other fields remain bottlenecks for economic development. If investment is concentrated in such bottleneck areas, it will effectively improve and help the economy return to rapid growth.