Guangzhou international forum praises opening-up, cooperation
Countries should work together to promote trade, according to participants at the two-day gathering
At the latest Imperial Springs International Forum, one of the most significant events to promote dialogues between China and the rest of the world, participants stressed the importance of opening-up and cooperation in dealing with global challenges.
More than 200 participants — including senior Chinese officials, former heads of state and leaders of international organizations, scholars and business executives from home and abroad — attended the two-day forum, which closed on Tuesday in Conghua district of Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province.
With the theme “advancing reform and opening-up, promoting win-win cooperation”, the forum solicited discussions and exchanges on the Chinese experience over the past 40 years, the new measures of China’s reform and opening-up, and solutions for global governance and for building a community with a shared future for mankind.
The participants reached a consensus that China’s opening-up could meet the demands for development and benefit global communities, and that cooperation is the key to solving the problems likely to be met along the way and is also essential to social progress.
“China has made tremendous and remarkable changes over the past 40 years … nobody believed that in such a short span of time, China would ... arise as the No 2 global economic power,” said Ban Ki-moon, former secretarygeneral of the United Nations.
He noted that the rising-up China is accompanied with global responsibility as a global leader. “Now everybody is looking to China with some sense of an admiration,” said Ban.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former president of Latvia and president of the World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid — an independent nonprofit organization composed of more than 100 former presidents and prime ministers from 70 different countries to help enhance development and improve the lives of those most in need — said the forum provides a good opportunity to address global issues, for example, the fact that a part of the world’s population has lost confidence in globalization.
“The governments of the world do need to work together to understand the benefits of trade, technology and innovation — (helping) as many as possible, so as not to leave anybody behind,” she said.
Chau Chak Wing, president of the Australia China Friendship and Exchange Association, said a review of the history of world trade can fuel the continuing growth of international cooperation, especially at a time that the world is filled with uncertainty and instability.
“History has proved that sticking to opening up and cooperation can generate more development opportunities and create more development space,” he noted.
Chau’s association, together with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, initiated the annual forum in 2014 to promote mutual understanding and consensus, as well as regional and global cooperation through the discussion of the important topics in economics, politics and culture.
Chau admitted that it was a “huge” challenge for him to organize such a nongovernment international forum.
“It is much bigger than doing business,” he said.
Chau, an Australian of Chinese descent, is also the founder and chairman of Kingold Group, a Guangzhoubased conglomerate in the hotel, finance and real estate sectors.
Chau said it has been his mission and responsibility to act as a bridge connecting China with the rest of the world.
“As China’s strength has improved, both China and the rest of the world have rising demands to know each other better, but meanwhile, problems and disputes also grow amid misunderstandings,” Chau said.
He then thought a forum to help China make friends with different countries could best be achieved by cooperating with the influential World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid, which invites former heads of state and government — who left their posts but still have a great impact in their countries and in the global community — to hold dialogues with senior Chinese leaders, thereby strengthening mutual understanding.
To create a quiet and homelike venue for the forum, Chau chose a convention center operated by his company — located in Conghua, a district of Guangzhou that is famous for hot springs — to host the participants. “The guests can visit each other during the forum” and carry on their conversations, “so that the discussions could be more open and go deeper,” Chau said.
In 2016, he was appointed by the alliance to act as the chair of its AsiaPacific region.
At the closing ceremony of the Imperial Springs International Forum, delegates reached a consensus.
They recognized China’s determined efforts to contribute to world peace and global economic growth in the process of 40 years of opening-up and reform, and expected the country to continue that process.
They stressed the need to strengthen inclusive, rule-based global governance, promote peace and security, contribute to global development and defend the international order.
And they also stressed the need to effectively implement the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to leave no one behind, to safeguard and promote global trade and investment, to foster innovation and technological development for the benefit of all, and to display mutual respect, deepen understanding, enhance trust, as well as to promote inclusive participation in the global economy to achieve balanced development and prosperity.