Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the second China International Import Expo on Tuesday showed China's firm determination to further open up and expand multilateral economic cooperation to benefit more, foreign researchers and China observers have said.

George N. Tzogopoulos, a senior research fellow of international relations at the Center International de Formation Europeenne (CIFE) headquartered in Nice, France, said Xi's speech functions as "a beacon to understand China's internal and external policies."

Xi outlined in the speech his "determination" to continue the policy of reform and opening-up and "enrich it with new initiatives such as the foreign investment law," Tzogopoulos added.

"China's ongoing development and enhanced international cooperation go together," Tzogopoulos said. "Against this backdrop, Xi Jinping successfully leads his country's effort to invest in innovation, change its growth model, preserve trends such as globalization and orchestrate joint actions at the world level, for example on realizing the BRI (the Belt and Road Initiative)."

Viktor Eszterhai, a senior researcher on China at Pallas Athene Geopolitical Institute in Hungary, said Xi's speech "sends a clear message to the world that China is against protectionism and trade war."

"China is a committed supporter of bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation. Through efforts to further open its economy, China's domestic market can act as a significant driving force in the global economy in the next decades," he said.

Mahmoud Raya, editor-in-chief of the Lebanese "China in Arab Eyes" news website, said the speech conveyed China's message of openness and rational globalization that are beneficial to everyone.

The openness China has promoted is an openness that contributes to building an open, collaborative and creative global economy, Raya said.

"These calls are not merely wishes or promises made by the Chinese president, but ... are goals that the president aims at implementing," Raya said.

Misheck Mwanza, an economist and immediate past director of Zambia Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, noted Xi's opening speech was progressive and very accommodating in that it focused on the entire world and key issues such as the global economy.

"In his speech, President Xi talks about technological transformation, innovation, research, inclusiveness and market access and China is looking at the entire world and how it is going to relate with everyone," Mwanza said. "China is simply looking ahead and that is what we need in a globalized society."

China has demonstrated that it stands ready to help developing countries realize their economic emancipation and uplift the living standards of their citizens, which is key to the attainment of both local and international development goals, Mwanza added.

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