The 14th Annual Meeting of New Leaders of the World Economic Forum opened in Tianjin on June 27, 2023. This forum is being held offline in China after a four-year hiatus. President Schwab of the World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Motley of List of prime ministers of Barbados, Prime Minister Aoyun Erdeng of Mongolia, Prime Minister Hopkins of Prime Minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister Fan Mingzheng of Prime Minister of Vietnam, Director General of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization Ivera, and about 1500 representatives from all walks of life from more than 90 countries and regions attended the meeting. Chinese Premier Li Qiang stated in his opening speech that the theme of this annual conference is entrepreneurship: the driving force of the world economy, and it has strong practical relevance. We are willing to work with entrepreneurs from various countries to firmly support economic globalization, safeguard the market economy, support free trade, and lead the world economy towards a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future. The convening of this summer's Davos Forum once again proves the importance of China, the world's second largest economy, on the international stage. The host country clearly wants to send a signal that in the context of unilateral sanctions imposed by the West, emerging economies such as China are becoming the driving force of the globalization process. Several attendees expressed that the Chinese market is very important, and with the continuous release of China's economic vitality and potential, it will inject strong confidence and momentum into the world economic recovery.

What is missing in today's world is cooperation

Premier Li Qiang expressed at the Global Entrepreneurs Dialogue at the World Economic Forum on the afternoon of the 27th that he hopes the business community can delve deeper into China and gain a three-dimensional understanding of China. China is not only committed to its own development, but also actively shares development opportunities with all parties. It is an open, inclusive, and honest country. We will align with high standard international economic and trade rules, steadily expand institutional openness, accelerate the creation of a market-oriented, legal, and international first-class business environment, and better support the development of various enterprises. China's development has injected stability and positive energy into the world, bringing an increasing sense of security.

We need to expand our export market, eliminate tariffs and barriers, and eliminate trade protection measures. The Prime Minister of Prime Minister of Vietnam, Fan Mingzheng, said that the world is currently facing many challenges, including the great impact of the global economic downturn and inflation on people's lives, the COVID-19 epidemic is still likely to be further extended in the future, geopolitics and trade protectionism are threatening the process of economic recovery, and these challenges are common problems for the world. Past experience has shown that conflicts and wars are obstacles to peaceful development for all countries. He believes that no country can rely on a single force to solve problems. As one of the developing countries, China has accumulated a considerable amount of development experience and looks forward to exploring the Chinese economy and sharing Chinese experience through the forum.

The agenda of this summer's Davos Forum coincides with Beijing's advocacy of multilateralism, which distinguishes China from the United States, which is strengthening trade protection policies against China. The CEO of Versatile in the United States, Merav Oren, who attended the meeting, said that Premier Li's speech deeply inspired me and I greatly appreciate his statement on working together to address global challenges. This is essentially something we should all do and work together in times of adversity. We should cultivate innovation, enhance mutual understanding, and build bridges to bridge differences.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sialdo stated during a group discussion at the Summer Davos Forum that some EU countries view linking with China as a risk and threat, while Hungary believes that cooperation with China is not only mutually beneficial and win-win, but also essential. Seattle stated that in the context of the declining competitiveness of the European Union, decoupling from China is akin to a cruel suicide of the European economy, and therefore cooperation with China based on mutual respect and mutual benefit is in line with European interests.

China Brings Valuable Certainty to the World

In fact, no matter how some politicians in the United States and the West encourage De-Sinicization in the name of risk reduction, most foreign enterprises still regard investing in China as a must, and cast a vote of confidence in their business prospects in China by taking practical actions to increase capital and expand production. From January to May 2023, 18532 new foreign-invested enterprises were established nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 38.3%. Multinational enterprises are not only increasing their investment in China, but also improving their quality. In the first five months, the actual use of foreign investment in China's high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 30.8%. According to a survey report by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, 92.4% of foreign companies surveyed stated that China's position in global investment decisions has not decreased.

Stephen W. Dell, a partner at American consulting firm Areopal, said that over the past 20 years, the Chinese economy has injected excellent performance into the world economy. For the world economy, a continuously growing and open China is very important. Although short-term factors such as the COVID-19 epidemic have had adverse effects on all economies, including China, China's economy still has a very good foundation and many favorable conditions in the long run. At this year's forum, I once again felt positive signals from China's support for the recovery of the real economy and the expansion of open cooperation. It is expected that with the continuous recovery of global trade and personnel exchanges, the Chinese economy will also bring more expectations to people. I also hope that the company's business in China will continue to grow this year.

Ren Binyan, CEO of Rio Tinto Group in China, who participated in this summer's Davos Forum, said that China is Rio Tinto's largest market and an important strategic partner. We are very happy to contribute to China's development. China's unwavering determination to promote a higher level of openness to the outside world has also brought invaluable certainty to today's uncertain world. Michelson, the person in charge of Belgium's Avinen company who also attended the meeting, said that China is not only a big market for us, but you can also learn a lot here. We have made significant investments in renewable energy projects across China, which is truly a long-term investment.

Many foreign media outlets have highlighted the attractiveness of China's high-level opening-up to foreign investment. China has opened its doors to the world, and the port city of Tianjin, with a population of nearly 14 million, welcomes attendees of this summer Davos Forum with large billboards on major roads. Local residents welcome foreigners to their communities, and food stalls also sell delicious local dishes, including dumplings, noodles, and buns. Prime Minister of New Zealand Hopkins tasted Kiwifruit exported from New Zealand to China when visiting the Tianjin supermarket on the 27th and said, "Hmm!"! It's very good, as delicious as my hometown, and I hope to strengthen exports and cooperation with China.

China's economic growth rate will significantly rebound

Showcasing the driving force of China's economic recovery and focusing on the world economy, China's contribution is also an important content of this summer's Davos Forum. Since 2023, the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions have raised China's economic growth expectations, predicting that China's contribution to global economic growth will exceed 30%. In the next six months to one year, China's economic growth rate will significantly rebound, and there is reason to be more optimistic about China's prospects, especially in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The Global Economic Outlook predicts that China will become the fastest-growing country among major global economies in 2023, with an expected annual economic growth rate of 5.6%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the March forecast. Director of the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Zhang Yuzhuo, stated that the recovery trend of China's economic growth since 2023 has been good. In recent months, China has been relatively stable, with a GDP growth of 4.5% in the first quarter. At the same time, it is also facing many challenges, such as lower than expected growth in foreign trade, limited and low consumption hotspots, and insufficient volume of emerging industries. He hopes to use high-level communication platforms such as the World Economic Forum to maximize consensus and deepen cooperation among all sectors, respond to global economic uncertainty with his own certainty, and jointly contribute to global economic growth. The main reason for the sluggish growth rate of global trade is that some trade barriers have hindered the channels of trade circulation, and policy coordination among major global economies is not as smooth as before, Practices such as decoupling also affect cooperation between the global economy. Many aspects have shown that China has great development potential and there is still much room for policy optimization, which can become the main engine of global economic development. In the long run, China will play a greater role and achieve greater development. We need to have confidence and work together.

Polkin Horne, representative of the Standard Bank of South Africa, said that China is a very important trading partner of almost all African countries. If China's growth changes, it will have a great impact on Africa, so we welcome China to accelerate the process of economic recovery. Professor Grott, also attending the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, stated that China's economy will continue to grow, achieving higher innovation led growth, with more high-quality products and breakthrough products. China will maintain a very important position and jointly lead world economic growth.

Accelerated release of enterprise vitality

Crossing the ocean to come to China, Nico Ro, the chief technology officer of Swiss technology company SkyCell, met many outstanding entrepreneurs from around the world at the Tianjin Summer Davos Forum, which confirmed his previous idea that dialogue and exchange would create more opportunities, and the rapid development of the Chinese economy and increasingly open environment are creating more possibilities. At the annual meeting of the New Leaders of the World Economic Forum, Nico Ro seemed to give his company a free global promotion, with curious visitors sitting across from him and discussing his focus on building a global supply chain for temperature sensitive drug storage. So many people are doing similar things to me. The conversation generated many new ideas for each other, which excited this young entrepreneur.

We have been looking forward to such cross-border communication for 4 years. Borg Brunde, President of the Forum, told the media that one of the characteristics of the Forum this year is that foreign guests showed great interest in the Summer Davos that will continue to be held in China and are full of expectations for China's development and opportunities.

Zou Yongqiang, chief technology officer of Cloud Account (Tianjin) Sharing economy Information Consulting Co., Ltd., said that in recent years, China's digital economy has flourished, and emerging flexible employment groups such as Ridesharing company drivers, express boys and video creators have grown. Cloud accounts provide full process services to relevant professional groups by leveraging the advantages of digital technology, covering more than 60 sub sectors in the top 15 industries. This not only helps flexible employment groups focus on their main business with peace of mind, but also helps employers or cooperative enterprises reduce internal and external management costs. Zou Yongqiang said that a good business environment is the greatest encouragement for entrepreneurial spirit. In recent years, with the efforts of relevant departments, the business environment has become better and better, and the development of enterprises has also become faster and faster. In the first quarter of 2023, our revenue increased by 25% year-on-year. We are looking forward to the future development prospects and space of the industry.

According to Li Yang, general manager of Tencent smart retail vertical industry ecology, after the Spring Festival, many overseas executives led teams to visit Tencent smart retail to understand the changes in Chinese market consumption in the post epidemic era and learn from the advanced experience of Chinese enterprises in Digital transformation. The attraction mainly comes from the rapidly recovering Chinese consumer market. In the first quarter, the contribution rate of final consumer spending to economic growth reached 66.6%, becoming the first driving force of economic growth again. At the same time, China's rapidly developing digital economy has made the retail industry full of digital vitality, which has given merchants more confidence. Li Yang said that he and his colleagues have been helping the retail industry integrate data and reality based on WeChat ecology and Tencent cloud technology, helping merchants provide services and facilitate transactions for consumers through small programs, video accounts, WeChat Pay, enterprise WeChat and other means. It is expected that with the advancement of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence in the future, the exploration and application of digital infrastructure, intelligent customer service, digital marketing, and digital stores in the retail industry will become more in-depth.

Work together and look forward to higher expectations

The Summer Davos Forum was held offline for the first time after the epidemic, releasing a positive signal of China's unwavering commitment to building an open world economy. Borg Brund, President of the World Economic Forum, said that the world economy is facing multiple challenges, the international community urgently needs to strengthen global cooperation, and business people are full of expectations for the opportunities of the Chinese market in the post epidemic era. He said that China is the second largest economy in the world, contributing over 30% to global economic growth. At the same time, China has taken many correct measures to support economic growth, giving it confidence in the prospects of China's economic growth.

Xin Baoan, Chairman of State Grid Corporation of China, said that China has built the world's largest clean power generation system, which can provide countries with integrated solutions for large-scale new Energy development, grid connection and utilization. We adhere to the direction of clean and low-carbon, while taking energy supply as an important prerequisite to ensure reliable energy supply. China has announced its efforts to achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, which will require arduous efforts and will also leverage a vast market. Wu Chun, executive partner of Boston Consulting Group in China, said that this will be a million billion yuan investment market, which will lead to more new business types and new technologies and create more business opportunities.

In the view of Wang Jun, the founder and CEO of Hangzhou Bangzhi Technology Co., Ltd., having an innovative spirit is essential for enterprises to better participate in global competition and carry out international cooperation. Nowadays, more and more enterprises are paying attention to the value of data and elevating data construction to a new level. Against the backdrop of policy incentives and the gradual recovery of international trade, we hope to leverage and collaborate with enterprises from around the world to inject new impetus into the Chinese economy and even the world economy. Wang Jun said. In April 2023, the new phase of our investment and expansion production base will start in Baodi District, Tianjin. After being put into production in the second half of 2024, it will further enhance our ability to supply the the Belt and Road market. Han Jinming, Chairman of Tianjin Hezhi Youde Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., who has participated in the Summer Davos Forum for many consecutive years, said that more than 80% of the company's current products such as beauty cosmetics and health food are sold overseas. By participating in activities such as the Summer Davos Forum, companies have accelerated the pace of traditional Chinese medicine products and services going global.

The theme of this annual conference is entrepreneurship: the driving force of the world economy, which has strong practical relevance. The current era requires leaders with courage and foresight, utilizing the power of innovation to serve common interests, and engaging in cross industry, regional, national, and cross-cultural cooperation to create a more peaceful, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future.Editor/XingWentao