Free trade for the future
- By Bai Shi
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E-mail Beijing Review, November 2, 2014
"Many of China's proposals have been met with active response and support by other member economies, such as starting the negotiation process of the Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and charting a blueprint for promoting connectivity," Wang said.
These proposals will strengthen the role of APEC in promoting regional economic cooperation, adding new momentum for Asia-Pacific development, Wang said.
China's proposals for the 2014 APEC meetings are practical and mutually beneficial. Some of the proposals have already been put into practice, Shen Minghui, an associate researcher of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Beijing Review.
"Amid sluggish global economic growth, China needs to play a more active role in promoting economic cooperation and free trade in the Asia-Pacific region," Shen said.
At a press conference in Beijing on October 16, Shen Danyang, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, announced three priorities of this year's AELM: advancing regional economic integration, promoting innovative development, pushing economic reform and growth, and strengthening comprehensive connectivity and infrastructure development.
"After the preparatory work of the senior officials' meetings and ministerial meetings, APEC members have developed extensive and in-depth consensus on these topics," Shen said.
As the host of this year's AELM, China will work together with other members on following key directions—building FTAAP, supporting multilateral trade agreements and opposing trade protectionism, promoting connectivity of the global value chain and supply chain, as well as facilitating free trade and investment across borders, according to him.
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of setting the Bogor Goals—free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies—at the Bogor AELM in Indonesia in 1994. Shen Danyang stressed that the 2014 AELM assumes the mission of achieving the goal and mapping out the direction of Asia-Pacific economic cooperation in the future.
"China's proposal helps boost the confidence of APEC partners. It also shows that China is willing to advance regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region," Wang Zhenyu, an associate researcher with the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) , said to Beijing Review.
China is making efforts to deepen reform, upgrade industrial structure and transform its economic growth model. Wang believes if China can achieve success in advancing growth through innovation and reform, the Asia-Pacific region will embrace new opportunities from China's development.
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