The year 2025 marks the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) as the nation moves closer to achieving its 2035 long-term vision. The following years will be a critical period for accelerating the construction of a new development pattern, promoting high-quality development and establishing a higher-level open economic system. At the recent Central Economic Work Conference, nine key economic tasks for 2025 were proposed, one of which emphasizes expanding high-standard opening-up and stabilizing foreign trade and investment. High-level opening-up is an essential component of high-quality development and a key strategy for realizing Chinese modernization.
Currently, China faces increasing difficulties and challenges internationally and domestically in terms of economic and social development. China firmly promotes its opening-up policy, consolidating the foundation of foreign trade and foreign investment, and effectively supporting the achievement of the country's main goals for economic and social development. In 2024, in terms of foreign trade, the import and export of goods maintained steady growth, and the structure of foreign trade continued to improve. Over the past year, China's total import and export trade grew by 5 percent year-on-year. Trade with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative grew by 6.4 percent. In the process of developing new quality productive forces and accelerating the cultivation of new powers for economic growth, the export structure continued to be optimized, with exports of mechanical and electrical products growing by 8.7 percent, raising their share of total exports to 59.4 percent. In terms of attracting foreign investment, from January to November 2024, the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased 8.9 percent year-on-year. While actual foreign investment declined slightly, there was strong growth in the high-tech manufacturing sector, with medical instruments and equipment manufacturing, computer and office equipment manufacturing, and professional technical services growing by 53.4 percent, 39.1 percent and 19 percent, respectively. This reflects the remarkable resilience and adaptability of China's economy, and a strong momentum for the development of new industries and new forces.
The Central Economic Work Conference highlighted China's high regard for pursuing high-standard opening-up and outlined a series of measures. First, the conference emphasized that China will voluntarily and unilaterally open its market wider. China will completely remove foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, promote wider opening of sectors such as telecommunications, healthcare and education, and focus on creating a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment, providing a favorable investment environment and stable growth and further consolidating foreign investors' confidence in developing in China. Also, China will improve the construction quality of pilot free trade zones and Hainan Free Trade Port, promoting the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and fully leveraging the comprehensive pilot platform for reform and opening-up. Additionally, in terms of unilateral openness, China will increase support for the least developed countries, increasing the scope of products enjoying zero-tariff treatment for these countries and thus further promoting global openness.
Second, the conference emphasized the need to cultivate new drivers for foreign trade and develop services trade through innovation. As the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation deepens, digital trade, cross-border e-commerce and green trade are gradually becoming key directions for future trade growth. China will actively develop the trade of digital products and technologies, as well as the digital services trade, thus accelerating the digital empowerment of the entire trading chain and enhancing the competitiveness of foreign trade. At the same time, China will promote international cooperation on green development, continue to actively participate in the formulation of international rules, and strengthen new advantages and momentum for development. In addition, as the services sector holds the biggest growth potential, China will fully apply the negative list for cross-border trade in services, promote comprehensive pilot programs for expanding the services openness, and encourage establishing professional service institutions to enhance international services capabilities. A sound cross-border financial services system will be established, and the supply of financial products and services will be enriched.
Finally, the conference stressed the need to align with international high standards and promote high-level institutional opening-up. China will place more emphasis on building an institutional system that aligns with international high-standard economic and trade rules, achieving compatibility and integration in areas such as intellectual property protections, environmental standards, labor protections, etc, and will help build a transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment. China will accelerate the process of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, deepen reforms in the foreign investment promotion system and continue to increase its role in international standards setting, international economic and trade cooperation, international division of labor and technology transfer.
In 2025, the global economy will face many challenges, including a global growth slowdown, increased risks and uncertainties, geopolitical tensions, rising trade protectionism, and adjustments in inflation and monetary policies, all of which will pose greater threats to the external environment stability. In terms of opening-up, China's traditional advantages in international division of labor and competition have weakened, institutional opening and alignment with international high standards in economic and trade rules still face gaps, and risks in key areas need to be effectively prevented and resolved.
Practice has fully proven that opening-up is the key choice of China and an essential path to building an open world economy and promoting inclusive and equitable economic globalization. By promoting high-level opening-up, China can create a stable external environment for high-quality development, better connecting domestic and international markets and resources, and constructing a new development pattern of dual-circulation. In order to achieve these goals, it is necessary to strengthen innovation and promote China's integration into the global innovation network, accelerating the construction of a globally competitive innovation ecosystem, deepening international innovation cooperation and cultivating China's new productive forces. At the same time, it is important to keep the balance of development and security, improving the regulation of key areas such as trade, finance and data, and enhancing risk prevention and security. China will also need to improve its participation in global security governance mechanisms, and actively engage in the formulation of rules for global security.
The writer is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
