Former French prime minister: China's further opening up will ease global economic tensions

China's measures to further open up and strengthen trade cooperation will help ease the current global economic tensions, said former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin on Monday on the sidelines of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE).

He said the CIIE is held at the right time when the world economic and trade system is undergoing many pressures caused by protectionism and populism, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated China's commitment to further reform and opening up in his speech at the opening ceremony. 

Dominique made the remarks at Hongqiao International Business Media and Think Tank Forum held in Shanghai.

He pointed out that global economy has seen historic transformation in the past decade. Western economies are experiencing a gradual recession, while emerging countries, especially China, are playing an increasingly important role in global economy. 

Europe's share of global growth declined from 30 percent in 2006 to less than 20 percent in 2016, and the US has rejected multiple trade agreements in that time. In contrast, China's share of global GDP has increased to 15 percent from two percent in 1978 when China started the reform and opening up process, he noted.

In response to the risks brought by protectionism and isolationism, Dominique said partnership is the best answer. He called for a new model of global trade and investment cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping, which covers more than 60 countries with some 900 billion US dollars investment in infrastructure, will become a cooperation model for shared development, he said. 

He believed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must allow more space for emerging countries. Currently, Russia and India each only has no more than three percent of the voting rights, while the US has almost 20 percent. 

The World Trade Organization (WTO) also needs reform to strengthen dialogue and supervision mechanism, so as to contain the risks of the current trade war, he said.