China initiates new round of reform and opening up

BEIJING -- Trying to restart a slowing economic growth, China's President Xi Jinping has decided to deepen the reform and open up the country wider to the outside world.

"China will stay strongly committed to deepening its reform on all fronts while opening still wider to the outside world," Xi told the Wall Street Journal in a written interview before he departed for an official state visit to the United States on Tuesday.

This was the second time in a week that the president reassured the market, that the policies which brought wealth and prosperity to China's people will continue, deeper and wider.

Last week, Xi told a room of former US officials and business leaders that China is fully committed to reform and opening up and he hoped they would actively support it.

While China and the United States are expecting much from Xi's visit, China-Britain cooperation has born fruit. On Monday, the two countries reached 53 agreements on nuclear energy, high-speed railway, infrastructure among many others at the 7th China-Britain Economic and Financial Dialogue in Beijing.

Notably, China suggested opening up its closely controlled financial market, allowing British institutional investors to trade securities in China, and mulling a mechanism to connect the Shanghai and London exchanges.

Premier Li Keqiang told visiting British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne that China is ready to cooperate in an open and inclusive manner.

These agreements indicated that opening up has reached levels unthinkable decades ago.

Since the incumbent central leadership was formed in late 2012, China has introduced many new measures to foreign investment and trade.

China is actively seeking a bigger say in international affairs, by participating in and increasingly initiating, global cooperation.