Xi’s BRICS speech: Enhancing global economic governance and confidence
- By Jon Taylor
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, September 5, 2017
|
|
|
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of BRICS Business Forum. [Xinhua] |
In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum in Xiamen, President Xi Jinping set the tone for the subsequent BRICS Summit by urging member countries to promote a "BRICS-Plus" approach to trade and economic growth in order to build an open and diversified network of development partners.
Such a collaborative approach would bring the benefits of BRICS cooperation to more people globally by achieving stable growth in the face of a weak global economic recovery.
Invoking the Chinese proverb "It is easy to break one arrow, but hard to break ten arrows bundled together," Xi described enhancement of emerging markets and the involvement of developing countries as a win-win proposition and should be a shared aspiration because it makes the global economy bigger through mutual cooperation.
And why not? After all, the BRICS members, led by China's example of opening up, have been, and continue to be, a positive force for global growth by bringing tangible and measurable development to more than 3 billion people.
As Xi noted, the combined GDP of the five allied countries has grown by 179 percent, trade by 94 percent, and their urban populations by 28 percent in the past 10 years. This has been accomplished through a multifaceted strategic approach comprising cooperation on trade, governance, culture, and people-to-people exchanges.
Xi correctly rejected criticism that the BRICS group has lost some of its importance since its launch a decade ago. Frankly, just because a multilateral group encounters some headwinds in developmental policies and goals does not detract from the potential.
On the contrary, it is a group rooted in both economic and multilateral cooperation, including safeguarding world peace and security. As Xi declared, BRICS members are full of confidence in finding solutions to problems that have arisen from economic globalization.
This can and will be achieved with stepped-up dialogue with emerging markets, as well as through policy coordination and international cooperation in order to contribute to securing global economic stability and growth.
Xi's speech also touched upon what, in many respects, represents the essence of China's approach to economic globalization: fighting protectionism and strengthening global economic governance.
Reiterating a theme he has pursued during his time as both CPC general secretary and president of China, he accentuated China's economic and development success in opening up to the world.
While rejecting the notion that economic globalization is a zero-sum game, Xi's BRICS Business Forum speech, like his speeches earlier this year at the Annual Meeting of the Davos World Economic Forum, the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, and the G20 Hamburg Summit, underscored China's willingness to provide global leadership – particularly in light of the lurch toward protectionism in the West and the deep division in the U.S. over President Trump's opposition to economic globalization.
Xi set the right tone for the opening of the BRICS meetings by stressing not only the necessity for economic globalization and global governance rules, but also the need for balance between the quality of growth and the pace of growth.
Of particular interest to me was Xi's linking the call for BRICS-Plus with the Belt and Road Initiative. These two complement and will enhance investment, trade and infrastructure, and economic development within developing countries that are a part of each initiative, which now includes the BRICS New Development Bank, the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, infrastructure and connectivity, and maritime cooperation.
All will contribute to the Chinese leader's vision of enhanced global economic governance and sustainable growth.
President Xi has encouraged the development of emerging markets in developing countries, and sees the BRICS-Plus platform and the Belt and Road Initiative as catalysts for global economic development by boosting cooperation and forging closer ties.
As he succinctly put it: "The development of emerging markets and developing countries is not meant to move anybody's cheese, but to make a bigger global economic cake." Who could object to that?
China has and will provide leadership and development assistance for mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. Simply stated, the world cannot afford protectionism if the global economy is to continue to grow and if the issue of income inequality is ever to be addressed.
China will play a central role in global economic governance because it is elevating the voice of the global south by encouraging an open free trade climate.
Its success in embarking on the path of socialism with distinctively Chinese characteristics during nearly 40 years of reform and opening-up, as well as in pursuing over 1,500 measures during the past five years to push forward all-around reform, demonstrates that China's path of development and reform can serve as a blueprint for emerging markets and developing countries.
Dr. Jon R. Taylor is a professor of Political Science and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)