Experts: Closer cooperation key to post-COVID recovery

Global communications, exchanges of views more 'vital, necessary than ever'

Closer cooperation, rather than division, alongside a new development paradigm and global governance models are key for the world to recover from the impact brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said on Tuesday.

The remarks were made at a warm-up dialogue of the 4th Hongqiao International Economic Forum, which will be held in November along with the China International Import Expo.

The event was attended by nearly a hundred guests, including economists, government officials, corporate executives and media representatives.

Jin Xu, chairman of the China Association of International Trade, said the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly frequent natural disasters brought about by climate change have posed huge challenges to the global economy, and pandemic restrictions and lockdowns have blocked the normal flow of international industrial chains.

"Within this context, global communications and exchanges of views have become more vital and necessary than ever. Recovery from the pandemic needs coordination and cooperation among countries, instead of confrontation," Jin said.

Amid the pandemic, e-commerce has emerged as a new growth driver in the world, and the digital economy in one country is closely connected with other countries, said Wang Jinzhan, executive secretary of the secretariat of the China Association for Science and Technology.

"We shall strive to build an open, fair and nondiscriminatory digital business environment," Wang said, adding that the association will host a sub-forum on this topic during the Hongqiao forum.

Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, said that striking a balance between COVID-19 control and the opening-up of the economy will become the new normal in the post-pandemic era, just as can be seen from the measures taken during the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.

"The current system of global governance needs reforms to adapt to this world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity," he said. "The Hongqiao forum is an ideal place to discuss how to build new mechanisms dealing with these changes. It has the potential to become the China equivalent of the Davos forum."

Yu Miaojie, deputy dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, noted three major changes now taking place－the shifting priorities from efficiency to safety in supply chains, the preference for regional cooperation and the accelerated application of new technologies.

"But the core of globalization remains unchanged－local production and international trade. More policy coordination is needed to avoid the negative externalities of trade, and promote inter-regional trade pacts between the three major markets of Europe, the Asia-Pacific and North America, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership," Yu said.

Zhang Xingrong, managing director of the Bank of China Research Institute, said international cooperation is being impacted by the politicization of the pandemic, but economies which showed better governance and provided global public goods such as vaccines during the pandemic will have a more important role in world economic governance in the long run.

With a theme of "The World Economy Under an Unprecedented Change: Global Economic Cooperation in the Post-pandemic Era" this year, the Hongqiao International Economic Forum will be attended by many prominent leaders and experts from around the globe, including heads of state, top officials of international organizations, successful businesspersons and scholars.

"We hope the forum will offer solutions and plans for building the world's open economy at a time of great changes," said Sun Chenghai, deputy secretary-general of the CIIE Bureau.

In addition to the main forum, around a dozen sub-forums will be held with topics focusing on multilateralism, digital economy, green finance and industrial revolution, and many important reports will be published, including a "world openness index" compiled by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Sun said.