–Country’s Foreign Minister contends

By Suelle Findlay-Williams in Shanghai, China
CHINESE Foreign Minister and State Councillor, Qin Gang, has said that over the past decade, China has contributed more to global growth than all the G7 countries combined.

The Foreign Minister made this statement during his keynote address to the opening ceremony of the Lanting Forum on Chinese Modernisation and the World in Shanghai, on Friday.

Qin said that China is the leading trading partner of “over 140 countries and regions, making US$320 million in direct investments around the world each day and attracting over 3,000 foreign businesses every month.”

Highlighting China’s growth, Qin said that over the past 40 years since China’s reform, “the Chinese government has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty and enlarged the middle-income group to over 400 million people.”

The minister told the gathering that given that China has successfully been able to turn its fortunes around and set the entire population on course to modernisation, the country will be able to provide a much stronger impetus to the global economy.

Qin explained that China’s modernisation aims to achieve common prosperity for all, including common development for all countries.

“Modernisation should not make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Nor should it serve the interests of only a few countries or individuals. Common prosperity for the whole world requires the development of all countries,” he said.

He pointed out that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Development Initiative (GDI) are key collaborations that China offers to the international community, serving as a means to pursue development goals.

BRI started 10 years ago, and according to Qin, more than 3,000 co-operation projects have been launched, involving close to US$1 trillion in investments and creating 420,000 jobs for participating countries.

“Many nations have thus realised their dreams of railways, big bridges, and poverty alleviation,” he said.

The Lanting Forum is a platform for communication and exchanges between the government, the business community, academia, media and the public. The Forum was established in 2010 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China to facilitate discussions on foreign policies and issues of common interest.

Other speakers at the opening ceremony included Chen Jining, Party Secretary-Shanghai; Dilma Rousseff, President of the New Development Bank and Former President of Brazil; Mamadou Tangara, Gambian Minister of Foreign Affairs; Essam Sharaf, Former Prime Minister of Egypt; Maurice Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of CV Starr & Co Inc and Starr Insurance Company, and Xie Chuntao, Executive Vice President of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.