Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday made a number of pledges, including further opening up of Chinese economy to the world and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) for foreign companies.
He said China will promote high-standard liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment, and explore the opening of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics.
"China's door of opening up will not be closed and will only open wider," he said.
He came up with the pledges at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 in south China's Hainan Province.
In presence of a number of heads of states, Xi called for people around the world to work together toward a community with a shared future for mankind and make Asia and the world peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, open and beautiful.
"With the future in mind, we need to treat each other with respect and as equals," said Xi.
"We also need to promote dialogue and share responsibility, engage in cooperation for win-win results, uphold inclusiveness and seek harmony without uniformity, as well as treat nature with respect," he said at the four-day annual conference of Boao Forum for Asia which began on Sunday.
Among others, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, and former Bangladesh Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain attended the opening ceremony.
In his opening speech, President Xi said China will significantly lower the import tariffs for vehicles and reduce import tariffs for some other products this year.
"We will take the initiative to expand imports," Xi said, which is seen by the experts as measures to balance the trade gaps between China and the US and some other major countries.
He said the second largest economy of the world will work hard to import more products that are competitive and needed by the Chinese people.
China will also seek faster progress toward joining the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, according to the president.
"China does not seek trade surplus; we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," he said.
The Chinese president expressed hope that developed countries will also stop imposing restrictions on normal and reasonable trade of hi-tech products and relax export controls on such trade with China.
On intellectual property rights, Xi said intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is the cornerstone of the system for improving property rights protection, and it will jack the competitiveness of the Chinese economy up.
"Stronger IPR protection is the requirement of foreign enterprises as well as for Chinese enterprises," he said.
Meanwhile, Xi expressed hope that foreign governments will also improve protection of Chinese IPR.
Xi said that China will complete the revision of the negative list on foreign investment in the first half of the year and implement across the board the management system based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list.
"We will enhance alignment with international economic and trading rules, increase transparency, strengthen property right protection, uphold the rule of law, encourage competition and oppose monopoly," he said.
In March, China established a host of new agencies such as the State Administration for Market Regulation as part of a major readjustment of government institutions.
The purpose of this readjustment, Xi said, was to remove the systematic and institutional obstacles that prevent the market from playing a decisive role in resources allocation, and enable the government to better play its role.
China will launch a number of landmark measures this year to significantly broaden its market access, Xi said.
Late last year, China announced that measures would be taken to raise foreign equity caps in the banking, securities and insurance industries.
"We will ensure that these measures are materialised," Xi said.
China will accelerate the opening-up of the insurance industry, ease restrictions on the establishment of foreign financial institutions in China and expand their business scope, and open up more areas of cooperation between Chinese and foreign financial markets, he said.
On manufacturing, he said China has basically opened up this sector with a small number of exceptions on automobiles, ships and aircraft.
Xi said that the Belt and Road Initiative may be China's idea, but the opportunities and outcomes from this initiative are going to benefit a major part of the world.
China has no geopolitical calculations, seeks no exclusionary blocs and imposes no business deals on others, the president said.
Speaking at the session, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said globalisation should not be feared as isolationism, protectionism, or exclusion.
Guterres said he is deeply convinced globalisation is universal and beneficial, and "our destination must be fair globalisation that leaves no one behind."
The UN chief said the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a blueprint for peace, prosperity, and partnership for people and the planet.
Many countries, including China, are committed on the Agenda 2030, said Guterres. "But all the countries need to do more to ensure that the benefits of the progress reach everyone," he added.
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