Chinese President Xi Jinping (5th L Front) poses for a group photo before attending the 23rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Manila, the Philippines, Nov. 19, 2015. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
The just-concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting, an important platform where the leaders voiced their commitments to economic integration and enhancing inter-connectivity in the Asia Pacific, has helped shore up global confidence in China and global economic outlook.
At the two-day meetings, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a four-point proposal on how to "steer this giant ship of the Asia-Pacific economy in the right direction."
He called on APEC economies to press ahead with reform and innovation, build an open economy, implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and promote inter-connectivity.
The proposal is in line with those Xi proposed during the weekend at the G20 summit in Turkey, where he called for strengthening coordination on macroeconomic policy, innovation-driven development and an open world economy as means for boosting global growth.
CONFIDENCE IN CHINA
All these proposals are China's pledges and contributions to Asia Pacific and the world as a whole, and show China's willingness to seek to inject a new impetus into the world economy, experts said.
In response to concerns about China's economic slowdown, Xi elaborated at the APEC summit that China's overall economy is operating within the reasonable range and has maintained a steady and fairly rapid growth, achieving a 6.9-percent growth rate in the first three quarters this year and contributing about 30 percent of global economic growth.
China's economy is still growing at a steady pace, said Ling Xingguang, an honorary professor at the Fukui Prefecture University of Japan.
China's 13th Five-Year Plan, which seeks to double 2010 GDP and the per capita income of both urban and rural residents by 2020, aims to keep China's annual GDP growth rate at 6 to 7 percent, he said.
A less than 7-percent growth rate will still make China a major contributor to the world's economic growth, he added.
China is growing very fast and is a very important economic player in the Asia-Pacific region, said Suzanne M. Benoit, president-director general of AERO MONTREAL.
She said that economic slowdown occurs everywhere in the world, even in the United States.
