Premier Addresses 2019 Summer Davos Forum

Premier Li Keqiang delivered a special speech at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Summer Davos Forum in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, on July 2.

Premier Li said that when Summer Davos Forum, which has been held in China for 13 consecutive years, was founded, a new round of industrial revolution was on the rise, globalization was accelerating, and new industrial forms, new technologies and new commercial modes were booming.

The forum's theme, New Champions, which was set at the very beginning, is still of realistic significance today, and many previous growing enterprises have evolved into giant trees, he said.

The Premier stressed that fair competition and common development must be guaranteed among all kinds of market entities, large and growing enterprises.

Under the current international circumstances, the forum held deep discussions on economic globalization issues, Premier Li said.

During the G20 Summit in Osaka last week, President Xi Jinping fully explained China's stance and views on economic globalization, and showed China's willingness to work with the international community to develop in the right direction.

Premier Li said that economic globalization is the objective requirement of social productive forces' development and the inevitable result of scientific and technological progress, and generally speaking, all countries benefit from it. And the newfound of industrial revolutions under economic globalization not only increases the connectivity among global industrial chains, innovation chains and value chains, but also greatly promotes inclusive growth.

He also called on efforts to uphold the major direction of economic globalization, further trade and investment freedom and facilitation, and improve the mechanism of equal rights, opportunities and rules to achieve win-win, balanced and inclusive development.

And, in the face of downward pressures from the global economy, the partnership spirit should be encouraged to expand consensus and resolve differences, and the authority and validity of rule-based, WTO-centric multilateral trade mechanism should be safeguarded, he stressed.

Forty years since the reform and opening-up, he said, China has actively integrated itself into the global chains of work distribution, industries, innovation, and values with no effort spared in its opening-up commitment.

In the future, China will firmly promote its overall opening-up and develop an open economy at a higher level, Premier Li added.

In addition to further steps to open the manufacturing and financial sectors, China will continue to push forward foreign exchange reform and capital account convertibility, lower overall tariffs, improve related laws, and enhance protection of intellectual property rights.

Premier Li said China's investment environment will continue to improve, with more transparency and predictability, and wider opening-up.

"China's economy was generally stable and remained within a reasonable range in the first half of this year, and the economic fundamentals continued to maintain a stable performance, with a good momentum for growth, while the main economic indicators were in line with expectations," Premier Li said.

Also, China is well prepared for new downward pressures, he added.

The positive long-term development trend of China's economy will not change because China's huge market, rich human resources, complete industrial facilities and surging new impetus provide sufficient resilience, potential and room for maneuver to the economy, the Premier said.

"We will unswervingly keep development as our top priority, and thoroughly implement the macroeconomic policies and measures that have been introduced," he said.

The old development way of strong stimulus and extensive growth will be abandoned, he added.

Reforms will be expanded to create a market-oriented, law-based business environment that meets international standards, energizing market players.

Meanwhile, more efforts will be made to implement larger-scale tax and fee reductions and promote administration streamlining, and improve regulations and services, he said.

The Premier also pledged relaxed market access and a level playing field environment for enterprises of different ownership, and domestic and foreign enterprises.

Financial institutions will be encouraged to increase loans to small and micro enterprises to promote the integration and advantage complementation of large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The development environment for the private economy will be optimized through financial support policies such as inclusive tax and fee reductions, and an innovation-driven strategy will be developed to foster new drivers of growth, Premier Li said.

He said the government will adhere to inclusive and prudent supervision to promote the sustainable and healthy development of emerging industries.

In addition, mass entrepreneurship and innovation will be further promoted to cultivate a more innovative and more competitive economy.

"We will promote positive interaction between economic development and improvement of people's livelihood, and make sure that the achievements of reform and development benefit the people in a better way," the Premier said.

Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze, and other representatives from more than 100 countries and regions attended the meeting.

State Councilor Xiao Jie, and He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, also attended the meeting.