Foreign participants at Bo'ao Forum elaborate on China's role

Some former world leaders attending this year's Bo'ao Forum for Asia have spoken of China's role in the global economy.

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference 2019 opens in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, March 28, 2019. [Photo:Xinhua]

Ban Ki Moon, the former United Nations Secretary General, was at the annual Boao Forum together with other former world leaders including Japan's former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and France's former President Francois Hollande. They applauded China for the progress it's made in growing its economy and pursuing high-quality development.

Ban, who is the chairman of the Boao Forum, spoke about the ongoing trade talks between China and the United States.

"Now that China has definitely become the number 2 world economy and the trading is amounting to 600 billion dollars. Therefore, there may be some sort of friction as both countries are now engaging in negotiation. This may be a bilateral trade relationship but it has greater global implications and consequences, not only through Asia but all through the world. Therefore, it is very important that this trade negotiation will come out smoothly to mutual satisfaction," said Ban.

While the World Trade Organization has tried to make strides towards fair trade, Ban emphasized the importance of having a global standard that governs all trade activities. He voiced his confidence that a resolution could be reached in the talks, and highlighted that China is committed to further opening up.

"As one lesson learning from this is that there are many different systems. Countries are taking a certain system and other countries are taking some other systems, but it is important that all these trading activities should be governed by a certain global standard. I know that Chinese is very committed through opening-up and I'm sure that there'll be some smooth and mutually satisfactory resolution of this," saidBan.

Speaking at the Boao Forum, former Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda applauded China for what he described as its impressive focus on the quality of its development. He said the new foreign investment law will further improve the quality of China's economy.

"Without these positive changes, the Chinese economy would be changing only in terms of scale. And the government's optimizing measures will make China a major country gaining more and more praise from the international community."

Also at the forum, former French President Francois Hollande called for closer ties between China, France, and Europe in order to promote multilateralism, adding that the parties should rally against protectionist and nationalistic threats.

"We are facing protectionist threats, we are facing isolationist, nationalist threats, so China needs to be aware of this. It is not just China, it is a global threat, and that is why it is very important that Europe, France, and China work together in this spirit. We have disasters today, we have changes in the development of the planet that are extremely worrying and that justify a relationship that's a partnership, because in the meeting with President Macron this notion of a partnership was also mentioned," said Francois Hollande.

More than 2000 delegates from 60 countries are attending this year's Boao Forum gathering.