Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) attends the 24th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima, Peru, Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)
Scholars and experts in some countries highly appreciated Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks at the just-concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' meeting. [Special coverage]
In a keynote speech delivered Saturday at the APEC CEO Summit in Lima, Peru's capital, Xi called on the 21 APEC member economies to promote an open and integrated economy, enhance connectivity to achieve interconnected development, boost reform and innovation to create more internal driving force, and promote win-win cooperation to forge strong partnership.
Lee Chian Siong, senior advisor to chairman of the China-ASEAN Business Association, said this year's meeting was held amid a sluggish global economic growth and increasing uncertainties for global trade.
Under such circumstances, Xi's call for supporting a multilateral trade system and an earlier establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific is of special importance, said Lee.
Lee applauded Xi's emphasis on breaking bottlenecks in regional connectivity and his pledge to seek synergy in development strategies and cooperation initiatives with relevant parties.
Infrastructure is of great significance to economic growth. Without the connectivity of infrastructure, it is difficult to achieve any goal, Lee said.
Meanwhile, Xi's emphasis on opening-up was welcomed by Li Zhuohui, an Indonesian political analyst.
Xi's pledge to pursue an opening-up strategy with greater resolve would provide extensive opportunities to business communities around the globe and add dynamic impetus to world economy, and it also reflects China's willingness to achieve win-win cooperation with other countries, Li said.
Enrique Posada, director of the Asia Pacific Virtual Research Center at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Colombia, told Xinhua that Xi's speech, underlining an open and integrated economy, connectivity and innovation, has a global vision.
"Even though the domestic peace process is currently the focus of the Colombian government, academia and the agricultural sector in Colombia should discuss the possibility of a free trade agreement with China," Posada said.
Claiming himself a strong supporter of globalization, Victor Modderman, a leading member of Canadian media pool covering the APEC meetings in Lima, showed great interest in Xi's remarks on globalization.
Globalization and free trade have been proved to be beneficial to millions of people around the world and they expect the process to continue and extend, said Modderman.
While problems are inevitable, there are needs for new negotiations and invitations to more economies to join in the process, he added.
In his speech, Xi used a sweet potato as an example to illustrate China's commitment to contribute to the development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.
Diana Gomez, a professor at National University of Colombia, said that using the sweet potato as an example is very impressive.
Gomez said Xi's speech shows that "China deepens its opening-up while retaining its own characteristics. Chile, Mexico and Peru set good examples for Latin American countries to learn how to cooperate with China."
