Overseas online review: The world needs to "rebuild trust", China deserves trust

The 2024 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum will be held in Davos, Switzerland from January 15th to 19th. The theme of this annual meeting is "rebuilding trust", which is in line with the practical needs of strengthening international cooperation and rebuilding trust among various economies. Only by doing oneself well can we win trust. Only by treating each other with sincerity and moving towards each other can we solidify the foundation of trust and reap more fruits of cooperation. China will continue to provide strong impetus for the development of the world economy with a commitment to words and actions.
The trust deficit urgently needs to be cracked. The tremendous progress made in economic globalization over the past few decades has largely benefited from mutual trust among countries. But now, the foundation of trust has been undermined, and the lack of trust is exacerbating the risks of global economic growth and peaceful development. Former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Malloch Brown, cited reports such as the Edelman Trust Barometer in his recent article for the World Economic Forum annual meeting, stating that the world today is "filled with a strong sense of distrust.". Therefore, the theme of this annual meeting is "rebuilding trust", which is in line with the concerns of all parties. More than 2800 representatives from over 120 countries and regions around the world gathered together to engage in in-depth discussions on four topics: "Achieving security and cooperation in a divided world", "Creating growth and employment for the new era", "Artificial intelligence promoting economic and social development", and "Implementing long-term climate, nature, and energy strategies", sending a positive signal of efforts to break the trust deficit. Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, believes that in the face of a divided world and escalating social divisions, "what we need is not only crisis management, but also finding the root causes of current problems, jointly building a more hopeful future, and rebuilding trust in the future.".

China's opportunities are highly valued. Since 1979, China has maintained a good cooperative relationship with the World Economic Forum. The World Economic Forum provides China with a window to understand the world, and also sets up a stage for the world to understand China. Over the past 40 years, China has developed itself and benefited the world through openness. Now China is a major trading partner of over 140 countries and regions, with the total tariff level dropping to 7.3%, close to the level of developed members of the World Trade Organization. As the world's second-largest economy, the certainty and stability of China's economic development are the common expectations of the external world. This expectation is evident from the high level of international public attention towards the Chinese delegation attending this annual conference. Some foreign media believe that the Chinese delegation is one of the biggest highlights of this year's forum. The Deutsche Welle website has noticed that China has put forward five suggestions on the issue of "rebuilding trust", including strengthening macroeconomic policy coordination, strengthening international industrial division of labor and cooperation, and strengthening international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation. Chen Liming, Chief Representative of the Greater China region at the World Economic Forum, stated that "China's opportunities" remain one of the important topics of this year's annual meeting. As an important engine of global economic recovery, China has vast markets and investment opportunities.

China's development is worth looking forward to. As an important engine of global development, China has maintained a contribution rate of around 30% to global economic growth in recent years. In 2023, the overall recovery of the Chinese economy is positive, with a GDP growth rate of 5.2%, higher than the expected target of around 5% set at the beginning of the year. China is the only country with all industrial categories listed in the United Nations industrial classification. The added value of manufacturing accounts for about 30% of the world's total, ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years. It has formed over 200 mature industrial clusters, which can meet the needs of rapid development of social productivity in terms of overall scale, completeness, and supporting capacity of the industrial system. It will also contribute to optimizing the allocation of global production factors and improving global production capacity. At this annual meeting, China stated that it will continue to strive to create a market-oriented, rule of law, and internationalized first-class business environment, continue to expand the import scale of high-quality products and services from all over the world, increase the introduction of foreign investment in mid to high end manufacturing, biopharmaceuticals, and other fields, and continue to provide a broader world for the growth of world trade and investment... With a steady and unwavering economy, China is committed to opening up to the outside world, Continuously contributing momentum to the development of the world economy and sharing China's development opportunities with the world. Sadia Zahidi, Executive Director of the World Economic Forum, believes that China has increased investment in manufacturing and renewable energy technologies, focused on promoting trade recovery, and a series of measures to boost the economy have begun to take effect and show results. The healthy development of China's economy will bring positive spillover effects to other regions of the world.
The report "2024 World Economic Situation and Outlook" recently released by the United Nations points out that high interest rates, escalating geopolitical conflicts, sluggish international trade, and frequent climate disasters pose serious challenges to the world economy. The tightening of credit and rising borrowing costs will make it more difficult to boost the economy. The United Nations predicts that the world economic growth rate will decrease from 2.7% in 2023 to 2.4% in 2024. Against this backdrop, the world is increasingly looking forward to China continuing to be an important engine driving global economic growth in the new year, bringing certainty and positive energy to the uncertain global economy. (Chen Yang)