BERLIN, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) — When the Chinese economy picked up its recovery at the start of the second half of the year, Europe experienced an evident positive spillover effect.
Recent quarterly reports of European companies and industries have shown that when they saw losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first nine months, market demand and consumer support in China have instilled a rare kind of confidence and strength in many European companies during these very difficult times.
With its huge single market of 1.4 billion people, China has the largest consumer base in the world.
BMW is a typical example of European enterprises’ wise decision and strategic vision to invest in China, with its sales in China up by 6.4 percent in the first three quarters this year, according to BMW China chief Jochen Goller.
“China was the first country to successfully fight the pandemic among major global economies. Thanks to that, our business in China is also recovering quickly,” Goller told Xinhua.
In addition to the enviable size of the market, China’s growth is having positive spillover effects both in the Asian region and for commodity prices as well as for participants in the global value chains which China is a big part of, said Jonathan Ostry, an official with the International Monetary Fund.
China’s reform and opening-up in the last decades has not only played a key role in China’s economic growth, but also promoted global enterprises’ investment confidence. The future high-quality development of China’s economy will be achieved with even greater openness and more intensive global cooperation.
According to the latest communique released after the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China will in the next five years take new and bold steps in its reform and opening-up, basically complete the building of a high-standard market system, and form new institutions of a higher-level open economy.
China has in particular vowed to establish a “dual circulation” development pattern, in which domestic and foreign markets complement and reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. The new development pattern will also allow China to better share its reform and opening-up fruits with the world.
For China and Europe, cooperation is not an expediency, but a strategic choice aimed at mutual benefit. A cooperative, open-minded and positive attitude to seek solutions to problems between the two sides are badly needed. Finally, to foster an open, fair, and non-discriminatory regulatory environment, both China and Europe need to move in the same direction.