Chinese diplomacy pushes local business to global stage: forum

BEIJING - Experts and business executives have lauded China's proactive economic diplomacy, saying proposals such as the Belt and Road Initiative and Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will help facilitate Chinese companies' global reach.

China's proactive economic diplomacy has provided Chinese enterprises with trade and investment opportunities in most parts of the world, Wu Jianmin, executive vice chairman of China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, said at the China and Globalization forum on Sunday.

Since 2013, China has been promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, projects of international trade and the AIIB and established the Silk Road Fund in 2014.

Cao Dewang, president of Fujian-based Fuyao Group, the world's second largest automotive glass maker, told Xinhua he considers today's changes in economic diplomacy a "great opportunity" for enterprises similar to China's opening-up and reform policy in 1980s.

According to statistics released by Ministry of Commerce, Chinese investors have made direct investment in 3,426 enterprises in 146 countries and regions around the world from January to May this year, with a combined non-financial investment of $45.4 billion, increasing 47.4?percent?year on year.

At the forum, Cui Mingmo, president of China Association for International Economic Cooperation, described the increase as a "welcome and huge leap forward".

Wu, also former China' s Ambassador to the United Nations and France, suggested that increasingly intertwined interests would bond China and its neighboring nations together in economic cooperation despite escalating territorial and maritime disputes.

In March, Xi called on Asian countries to "move towards a community of common destiny and embrace a new future" in his keynote speech at this year's Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.

Meanwhile, the world, not limited to Asia, has shown that it welcomes the second largest economy's effort in blueprinting common development for the globe.

More than 60 countries from Asia, Africa and Europe have vowed to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

AIIB is anticipated to begin formal operations by the end of 2015 after its 57 prospective founders signed its charter in June.

During Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's European trip last month, leaders from both sides expressed great interest in China's involvement in the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

China's participation in EFSI will benefit Chinese enterprises in securing a foothold in European infrastructure construction and improving technologies and products through collaboration with developed countries, Yu Weiping, vice president of China's State-owned high-speed rail maker CRRC Corporation Limited, said in his speech at the forum.

This week, China's first advanced multiple unit train to be exported to Europe finished construction at a subsidiary of CRRC Corporation Limited. It will be delivered to Macedonia.