The Chinese economy has entered a new normal. In this context, how should we view the relationship between enhancing external economic cooperation and deepening domestic reform, and that between hosting the G20 Hangzhou Summit and implementing the 13th Five-Year Plan, deepening reform in all respects and striving for the two centenary goals?
You've asked a good question. As the host country of the G20 Summit, China must provide a good answer to the question of how to combine its own development needs with the need for cooperation in the world so that the Hangzhou Summit can be an international event with distinct Chinese features. China and its economy have become an integral part of the world and the world economy in a community of shared destiny with deeply intertwined interests.
The Chinese economy has entered a new normal and a period of transformation and upgrading. The world economy has also come to a new stage of profound adjustment and change. The Chinese economy growing at a medium-high speed is an important source of growth for the world economy. Steady growth of the world economy in turn will provide a favorable external environment for China's development.
A close look shows that China's overall approach as the host of the Hangzhou Summit is consistent with the guiding principles of the proposal for the 13th Five-Year Plan. The 13th Five-Year Plan outlines a vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development and identifies innovation as the primary driving force for development that is placed at the center of national development. The theme and key agenda items of the G20 Hangzhou Summit are highly aligned with these ideas, and reflect not only China's own development needs, but also the common needs of international economic cooperation and the institutional transition of the G20. Hosting the G20 Hangzhou Summit will be an important platform for putting China's vision and propositions into practice. It will also add further impetus to the great historical process of implementing the 13th Five-Year Plan and deepening reform in all respects at home.
Greater international economic cooperation features prominently in the proposal for the 13th Five-Year Plan. It envisions a China that works for improvement of the international economic governance system and promotes a more equitable and fair international economic order leading to greater win-win cooperation. The proposal also calls for efforts to enhance international coordination on macro-economic policies and promote global economic balance, financial safety and stable economic growth. These are not just China's propositions. They are also consistent with the needs of world economic growth and the shared aspiration of the G20 members and the international community at large.
Last year, the Chinese economy maintained a growth rate of 6.9 percent despite sluggish world economic recovery, divergence in major economies' monetary policies and greater volatilities in the international financial market. Seen in the global context, this counts as an impressive achievement. This has also made China the biggest contributor to the global economy among major economies, generating over 25 percent of world economic growth. Such an achievement is largely attributable to our efforts to shift the growth model and push forward restructuring by paying greater attention to innovation- and consumption-driven growth.
In the face of downward pressure from the world economy and challenges from economic transformation and upgrading at home, we will adopt a holistic approach and fully leverage the huge potential, resilience and policy flexibility of the Chinese economy and strike a proper balance among pursuing steady growth, promoting reform and restructuring, improving people's livelihood and guarding against risks. While expanding aggregate demand moderately, we will work hard to advance structural reform, especially supply-side structural reform, pursue innovation-driven growth and identify new drivers with new approaches. In a word, we have the confidence and ability to make sure the economy will grow at a medium-high speed and move toward the medium-high level, to achieve the two centenary goals and realize the Chinese dream of great national renewal while continuing to contribute significantly to world economic growth.
We can say that the G20 Hangzhou Summit will be an important opportunity for China and the world to understand, adjust to and shape the new normal. It will enable China to better combine external economic cooperation with its domestic reform and development and invite the world to join China in opening up new vistas of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development and striving for a new era of global growth. We are full of expectations and confidence in this endeavor.
