(An authored article by H.E. Ambassador Fan Kun)
Recently, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. At the session, the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and Promoting Modernization in the Chinese Style” was reviewed and approved. In the text of the decision, the word “reform” appears 145 times, and the word “opening-up” 35 times, conveying China’s determination to comprehensively deepen reforms and expand high-level opening-up, bringing more development opportunities to the world.
A plan for further comprehensive deepening of reforms was drawn up at the plenary session. The “Decision” proposed more than 300 important reform measures, emphasizing the leading role of economic system reform. The session suggested that it is necessary to improve the system and mechanisms for developing new productive forces in accordance with local conditions and enhance the system for promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy. In recent years, China’s scientific and technological innovation capabilities have significantly improved, rising from 34th place in 2012 to 12th place in 2023 in the Global Innovation Index. Emerging strategic industries are flourishing, with their output value accounting for more than 13% of GDP in 2023, an increase from 7.6% in 2014. In the first half of this year, China’s installed capacity for new energy production surpassed coal energy capacity, and significant progress was made in greening production and electricity supply. In the future, China will continue to promote the deep integration of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and 5G, with traditional industries, providing new momentum for global economic growth through high-quality development.
This plenary session also sent a signal for further high-level opening-up. The session emphasized the need to build a new, higher-level open economic system. In the first half of this year, the total value of China’s imports and exports reached 21.17 trillion yuan (about 3 trillion US dollars), an increase of 6.1% compared to the previous year; the volume of foreign investments amounted to nearly 500 billion yuan (about 70 billion US dollars), remaining at a high level over the past decade; and 26,870 new foreign-invested enterprises were established, an increase of 14.2% compared to the same period last year. These figures represent international recognition of China’s business environment and demonstrate confidence in China’s development prospects. China’s doors to the world will not close; they will only open wider and wider. In the future, China will continue to expand institutional opening-up, actively align with high international economic and trade standards, and further relax market access. In the context of economic globalization facing challenges, China’s open stance will bring additional security to the world.
This plenary session brings more development opportunities to the world. It emphasized the need to improve mechanisms for promoting the high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road.” The Chinese people have always believed that only when the world is doing well, can China be well, and when China is well, the world can only get better. Last year marked the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s proposal to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative. To date, China has signed more than 200 cooperation agreements under the Belt and Road Initiative with over 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations around the world. A large number of significant projects under this initiative include the priority section of the Bar-Boljare highway project, for which the main contractor was a Chinese company. According to Monteput’s statistics, since its opening in July 2022, more than 5.3 million vehicles have safely traveled on this section, equivalent to every citizen of Montenegro passing through it about eight times, truly bringing great benefits to the people of Montenegro. The Belt and Road Initiative originates in China, but its opportunities and outcomes belong to the whole world. All interested countries can join, participate, cooperate, and benefit together.
China and Montenegro share a deep traditional friendship and have tremendous potential for cooperation in various fields. Looking to the future, China will continue to deepen reforms and opening-up, bringing new opportunities for cooperation with Montenegro. China and Montenegro should continue their friendship across time and space and collaborate, without limiting themselves to specific areas, to bring numerous benefits to both of our peoples.