Reform and opening-up still key to development

This year marked the 45th anniversary of China launching its reform and opening-up policy. The country has made great achievements over the past 45 years because of the vigor and creativity unleashed by reform and opening-up.

The fast economic growth of the country over the past 45 years as a result of reform and opening-up has shown that China’s development cannot be separated from that of the rest of the world. The country has benefited tremendously from making full use of foreign capital, technology and management experience, and at the same time actively encouraged Chinese enterprises and funds to go global and participate in international markets and competition.

Thanks to these efforts, China is now deeply integrated into the international industry and supply chains and has become an important force in promoting economic globalization.

The focus of reform has shifted to building high-standard openness and a high-level socialist market system and the focus of the country’s industrial development has now shifted to advanced manufacturing, modern service industries and high-tech industries.

Today, the nation faces new opportunities and challenges to deepen reform and opening-up.

To begin with, adhering to people-centered development, achieving common prosperity for all people and resolving the contradictions of unbalanced and inadequate development have become prominent challenges.

The new scientific and technological revolution that has just unfolded and the United States’ China-containment strategy, particularly in the high-tech fields, should spur the nation to seek self-reliance in science and technology and make the most of the new technology revolution to overcome these challenges.

At the same time, realizing harmonious coexistence between mankind and nature poses higher requirements for the country’s industrialization. The country needs to focus more on development of green industries, intelligent technology and the digital economy, as well as green finance, green trade, and green investment.

Implementing its new development concept and new development paradigm can help the country effectively resolve these challenges.

In particular, China needs to deepen supply-side structural reforms and expand domestic demand for coordinated development to promote the economy to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth.

In the process, China needs to continuously increase the proportion of consumer spending in GDP and increase the proportion of middle-income people in the total population. In addition, it must pay great attention to the smooth interplay between domestic and international circulation and cultivate new comparative economic advantages as well as technology breakthroughs and institutional reforms, so as to ensure the close connection between the Chinese economy and the world economy.

Reform and opening-up will continue to be the enduring guarantee for the country’s high-quality development in the foreseeable future.

Editorial, China Daily