Recent Updates

Alongside a number of world leaders, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the APEC CEO Dialogue. To break the President Xi’s speech down, The Beijing Hour invited Adjunct Professor Ivo Ganchev from Beijing Union University. You can listen to the full episode of the show from Nov 20, 2020 on the China Plus website or read a transcript excerpt from Ivo’s analysis below.

Shao Yi: What’s your takeaway from President Xi Jinping’s speech at the APEC CEO Dialogue?

Ivo Ganchev: I’d say that there are a few main takeways, and some of them have to do with the way the speech was clearly divided into different parts.

The first part basically outlined China’s vision for its economic development, which means stimulating demand domestically, employng technological innovation as a growth driver, and a commitment to pursue continuous reform – which is always necessary as governments are always faced with emerging challenges.

Now, one of the things that stands out to me is President Xi’s ability to make the best of macro-historical trends such as globalization and innovation.

What I mean is, for example, is that we all know about the importance of new technology; and we know that taking it to the market creates faster economic growth, but what’s remarkable in the case of China is that President Xi is not just speaking about this; he’s putting this into practice and that’s one of the reasons why China continues to grow.

For what it’s worth, I think it would be wise of APEC CEOs and other decision-makers to take note of President Xi’s speech and of what China does, and do something similar.

What President Xi also reiterated in another part of his speech is a very clear message for the APEC community – which is basically that China is “open for business.” More specifically, there are many aspects of ongoing reforms within China to welcome foreign companies, and Chinese companies are also very keen to seek international partnerships.

The timing of this commitment is tremendously important because in the past few years, some countries have experienced a partial backlash to globalization, followed by very unfortunate lockdowns due to the COVID pandemic.

And if you’re a CEO, that’s very concerning because isolation doesn’t create economic growth, so the fact that President Xi is reassuring the APEC business community of China’s commitment to openness is commendable.

So overall, in essence the speech reiterates the China’s ready to step up and hopefully serve as one of the core drivers of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific.

Shane Bigham: That was Adjunct Professor Ivo Ganchev with Beijing Union University, interpreting the Chinese President’s keynote speech at the APEC CEO Dialogue.