Photo:Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed that China will open its arms to provide more market, investment, and  growth  opportunities for all countries, during his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2nd China International Import Expo in Shanghai on Tuesday. 

In his speech, President Xi said he believes all friends arrived with pleasure and will return home satisfied.

Xi also highlighted  China's accomplishments in the years following the first CIIE, reaffirming that China is a country that abides by its words. 

Among the 98 cooperation agreements reached with relevant countries during the first CIIE, 23 have so far been completed, while 47 made positive progress, and the remaining 28 are in progress, according to Xi. 

So far, China has signed 197 Belt and Road cooperation documents with 137 countries and 30 international organizations. 

During his speech, Xi urged resolute opposition to protectionism and unilateralism in a bid to jointly build a world economy of openness and cooperation.

Xi also promised China will speed up pushing for trade agreements such as the China-EU investment pact and the China-Japan-Korea free trade agreement. 

He proposed continuous reduction of trade barriers and further improvement of global value and supply chains to jointly nurture the market demand.

It's inevitable that there will be bumps when the distance is close, but negotiation is the right way to solve such frictions, he added.

Xi put forward three proposals for economic globalization during the opening of the second CIIE, which included jointly building an open and cooperative world economy, a joint effort toward an open and innovative world economy, and together building an open and sharing world economy.