China-Europe freight train carrying anti-epidemic supplies leaves for Belgrade, Serbia from Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)
HIGH-LEVEL OPENING-UP
The CPC leadership meeting reiterated China's commitment to high-level opening-up and the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
"China is well equipped with the conditions for promoting high-level opening-up," said Zhou Maohua, an analyst with the China Everbright Bank, citing the country's deepening supply-side structural reform and more mature supervision laws and regulations.
Since the beginning of 2021, the country has expanded its opening-up with concrete measures. In July alone, China pledged proactive efforts toward a higher level of financial openness based on a negative list approach, issued a guideline to support high-level reform and opening-up of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, and released a negative list for cross-border trade in services in its southern island province of Hainan, the first negative list for services trade in the country.
Despite a complex and severe external environment, China's economic and trade cooperation with other countries and regions is thriving. Analysts believe the momentum will continue as the economy generates more opportunities with its doors opening wider.
The country's foreign trade navigated epidemic-induced challenges to become a major support to the international logistics supply chain in the first half of this year. The China-Europe freight train service, a window to the transcontinental trade, handled 7,377 trips, up 43 percent from the same period last year. Around 94,000 tonnes of anti-pandemic supplies were shipped through the route as of late June, reinforcing the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the period, the growth rate of China's trade value with its top three trading partners -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union, and the United States -- stood at 27.8 percent, 26.7 percent and 34.6 percent, respectively, official data showed.
China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road rose 27.5 percent year on year to stand at 5.35 trillion yuan (827.5 billion U.S. dollars), while trade with countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grew 22.7 percent year on year.
Foreign investors have continued to cast a vote of confidence in the country's opening-up. In the first half of this year, foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, jumped 33.9 percent year on year to 91 billion dollars, the highest growth pace in almost 10 years, according to the commerce ministry.
