China’s vice-premier Liu He welcomed foreign investment and declared his country open to the world yesterday after three years of pandemic isolation.
Liu’s explicit pitch to global leaders gathered in Davos made it clear China wants international investors to play a key role in Beijing’s attempts to revive its slowing economy.
“Foreign investments are welcome in China, and the door to China will only open up further,” said Liu, a top economic tsar and confidant of President Xi Jinping.
His speech to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting mentioned “strengthening international cooperation” and “maintaining world peace” 11 times.
Liu made his speech as the release of new population data sounded an alarm on a demographic crisis with profound implications for the world's second largest economy.
New gross domestic product (GDP) data also showed economic growth slumped in 2022 to the worst level in nearly half a century.
Liu's visit to the Swiss ski resort is the first trip abroad by a high-level Chinese delegation since Beijing abruptly began dropping its “zero-Covid” curbs that shielded its 1.4 billion people from the coronavirus last month.
That policy also cut off China from the rest of the world for the past three years, stifling foreign investment.
At Davos, Liu is sitting down with CEOs of finance, tech, consumer and industrial companies, a Chinese official familiar with the matter told Reuters. He will also meet other world leaders.
Liu’s speech was another sign of Beijing’s increased engagement with other countries in recent weeks. A recent thawing of relations with Australia paved the way for China to resume imports of Australian coal after a three year halt.
And in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met on the Indonesian island of Bali where they agreed to follow-ups, including a planned visit to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early 2023.
The visit by the high-level Chinese delegation to Davos also contrasted with the conspicuous absence of Russia, a key ally whose invasion of Ukraine China has refused to condemn.
China’s relations with the US and its allies have grown more tense throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, with Beijing and Washington sparring on issues from technology to Taiwan.
The bosses of global investor Fidelity International and accountancy giant EY yesterday were among the business leaders attending Davos who voiced concern about a potential decoupling of the two economies.
Liu’s speech was aimed at addressing investor concerns, said Xingdong Chen, Chief China economist and Head of BNPP Markets.
“Liu He, on behalf of Xi, wants to clarify the policy confusion and misunderstanding, and to reassure the world China will continue the market-oriented reform and opening.”
The speech, he said, explained key concepts the ruling Communist Party has been pushing, such as the Chinese model of modernisation and common prosperity.
“It seems the new leaders are reversing leftward policy changes and re-embarking on Deng Xiaoping’s line of reform and opening,” he added.
Beijing was confident that China’s economy would likely return to its normal growth trend in 2023 and was expecting more imports, corporate investment and consumption, he added.
REUTERS