Photo: VCG

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called for joint efforts to defeat COVID-19, reinvigorate trade and investment, unleash the power of innovation in driving development, and improve global governance, as the world is facing a pandemic and drastic changes both unseen in a century. 

Xi made the remarks while addressing the Conference of the 70th anniversary of the China Council for the Promotion of Interna-tional Trade (CCPIT) and Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit in Beijing. 

At the conference, the CCPIT and representatives from business communities launched the Beijing Initiative of Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit to jointly tackle challenges and promote stable global trade and economic recovery.

Coming at a critical time when global trade and economic devel-opment face a confluence of challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s efforts to help boost global trade and economic development are of great significance to the world, Chinese ana-lysts said. China’s contribution to global trade and economic re-covery also stands in stark contrast to rising economic and geopo-litical risks posed by the US, the analysts noted. 

“Our world is facing a pandemic and drastic changes both unseen in a century. Economic globalization is experiencing headwinds, and the world is entering a new period of volatility and transfor-mation. Now more than ever, business communities across the world yearn for peace and development, call for fairness and jus-tice, and aspire for win-win cooperation,” Xi said during the speech.

Xi also reiterated that China’s resolve to open up at a high stand-ard will not change, and that the door of China will open still wid-er to the world, and China will continue to foster an enabling busi-ness environment that is based on market principles, governed by law and up to international standards.

The Beijing Initiative proposed that the world should jointly ad-dress the challenges of the pandemic, as well as promote the stabil-ity and recovery of the world economy. It called on the global business community to work together to practice multilateralism, jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all. 

It also called on the world to join forces to bridge the development divide, actively promote innovation, as well as promote green, low-carbon and sustainable development. 

The initiative was raised at a time when the global trade situation was facing a particularly difficult period due to the COVID-19 pandemic and US-initiated sanctions against Russia and other and protectionism.  

On April 12, the WTO lowered its forecast for global commodity trade growth for 2022 to 3 percent, compared with the 4.7 percent growth it forecast in October 2021.

Hu Qimu, chief research fellow at the Sinosteel Economic Research Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday that all countries should uphold multilateralism at a time when the global economic recovery has been hit by regional tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“In the face of the impact of the epidemic that made global indus-try chains fragile, and the impact of energy supply shocks and high commodity prices that have exacerbated the inflation risks in various countries, all countries should strengthen coordination and cooperation to quickly restore the normal operation of the global industrial chain,” said Hu.

In the medium and long term, countries should promote technolog-ical innovation and green development through transnational eco-nomic and trade cooperation and exchanges, so as to put the glob-al economy on the path of high-quality development, Hu added.

China contributed a large extent to stabilizing global trade, ac-counting for more than 20 percent of total global trade value in 2022, according to media reports.