China is expected to continue to prioritize economic development, deepen reforms and expand opening-up, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19 on the economy, according to a prominent expert. 

Bi Jingquan, executive vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, or the CCIEE, said China has time and time again succeeded in controlling domestic outbreaks of the COVID-19 disease with the dynamic zero-COVID approach, to sustain the economic recovery momentum. 

The current round of the resurgences of domestic cases has happened in many key cities including Beijing and Guangzhou in Guangdong province, to impose huge pressure on the authorities to control the epidemic while pursuing economic recovery amid problems such as the contraction in the real estate, decline in steel and cement output and increase in employment rate among the young people, he said.

Yet the recently concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has showed that China will keep taking economic construction as the central task, deepening reforms and expanding opening-up, he said.

He also said the fundamentals that support the long term stable and sound economic development in China remain unchanged, and the Chinese economy has demonstrated strong resilience since the start of the year, amid the resurgences of domestic COVID-19 cases and complexities and changes in the international environment.

Bi made the remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony of the eighth round of Sino-Japanese entrepreneurs and former high-level officials dialogue, which was co-held online Monday by the CCIEE and Japanese Business Federation, or Keidanren.

He said the Chinese side is willing to work with Japan in areas including strengthening cooperation in emerging industries such as semiconductors, new energy, automobiles and biomedicine, and further promoting international cooperation in digital transformation.

More than 40 business leaders and former high-ranking officials from the two countries participated in the event, including Zeng Peiyan, former vice-premier of China, and Yasuo Fukuda, a former Japanese prime minister.

The Chinese participants said China and Japan have many common grounds in coordinating policies that boost the economy, promote investment and trade exchanges and improve people’s livelihood, as well as have broad space for mutually beneficial cooperation in fields such as digital trade, semiconductor manufacturing, new energy vehicles, hydrogen energy and energy storage, energy conservation and environmental protection, and biomedicine.

They said the two countries could jointly cultivate new drivers for development to help themselves and the world economy to achieve strong, green and healthy development.

The Japanese participants said the two countries are expected to deepen cooperation at multiple fronts including trade and economics, to deliver win-win outcomes, expand common interests and play their respective, important roles in the world for controlling the pandemic, promoting world economic recovery and safeguarding the stability of international industrial and supply chains.

At the end of the event, the CCIEE and Keidanren together released a joint statement calling for China and Japan to expand mutually beneficial cooperation and jointly promote regional and world peace and prosperity.

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