Original title: The 9th China International Import Expo | Openness, innovation, development, and sharing—Hongqiao Forum focuses on hot global economic issues
In the past few days, the Hongqiao International Economic Forum, held concurrently with the 9th China International Import Expo, has been in a warm atmosphere. It closely follows the theme of "Stable Cooperation and Jointly Building an Open World Economy" and has set up sections such as open cooperation, open innovation, open development, open sharing, etc. to demonstrate the certainty of openness to the turbulent and changing world and continue to release a strong signal of China's high-level opening up to the outside world.
The Hongqiao Forum brings together a wide range of political, business and academic guests from various countries to participate in exchanges, promotes the in-depth integration of theoretical discussions, data release and market practice, and has become an important window for observing the trend of China's opening up policy and gaining insight into the global economic wind direction.
Through open cooperation, we can inject valuable certainty into global development.
In today's world, undercurrents of unilateralism and protectionism are surging, global industrial and supply chains are experiencing disruptions, and the world's economic recovery is full of uncertainties. China has become a staunch practitioner of multilateralism, an important source of power for the stable development of the world economy, and a reliable partner for global common development.
The "World Openness Report 2026" released by the Hongqiao Forum shows that the world openness index in 2025 is 0.7453, a year-on-year decrease of 1%, the largest decline since 2016. At the same time, China’s openness index ranking continues to improve.
This year is the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan” and the 25th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. At the "25th Anniversary of China's Accession to the WTO: Opening, Integration and Development" sub-forum, a piece of China's "development answer sheet" is eye-catching——
China's total economic volume has increased from less than 9.6 trillion yuan when it joined the WTO to more than 140 trillion yuan in 2025; its total import and export of goods trade has increased from less than 510 billion U.S. dollars when it joined the WTO to more than 6.3 trillion U.S. dollars in 2025. China has maintained its status as the world's largest country in goods trade for 9 consecutive years, and its average annual contribution to world economic growth has remained at around 30%...
"Accession to the WTO is a milestone in China's opening up." Li Chenggang, International Trade Negotiator and Vice Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, said that over the past 25 years, China has fully fulfilled its commitments to join the WTO, unswervingly opened up to the outside world, shared opportunities and developed together with all parties.
According to Maika Oshikawa, Director of the WTO Accession Department, for China, joining the WTO marks a new chapter in its opening up and integration into the global economy. It is also an important step for the WTO, helping the WTO become a truly global organization and allowing one-fifth of the world's population to enter a rules-based trading system.
Promote innovation empowerment and activate new growth momentum through technological integration.
During the Hongqiao Forum, artificial intelligence was a hot topic. Nobel Prize winner Michael Levitt said that artificial intelligence is transforming from a tool to a scientific research accelerator and reshaping the innovation paradigm.
"Every time we come to China, we are deeply impressed by the speed and scale of China's innovation." Tan Sen, President of the U.S.-China Business Council, said frankly that as the two most dynamic economies in the world, cooperation in the fields of humanoid robots and embodied intelligence is in the common interest of both parties.
Jetbelin Global CEO Gordon Naylor also felt deeply: For many years, multinational companies have been thinking about what we can bring to China; now, we are beginning to think about what China can bring to the world. Future development cannot stop at “bringing in” or “going out”. What is more important is the cross-border flow of innovation.
Promote industrial collaboration and consolidate the foundation for cooperation in partnership symbiosis.
Enterprises are participants and beneficiaries of openness, and industrial and supply chains are the link that empowers each other. At the sub-forum "The Power of Enterprises in a Changing Situation: Building a More Sustainable Industrial Partnership", Vice Minister of Commerce Yan Dong said that the more we are in a changing situation, the more important it is for enterprises to play their role in connecting markets, allocating resources, and creating value.
As China continues to deepen its high-level opening up and advance high-quality development, the development of multinational enterprises in China is also experiencing new changes.
Dai Kaile, Vice Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, observed: In the past 25 years, many European companies have come to China and then relied on China to deploy the global market - from "doing Chinese business in China" to "doing global business in China." He took a photovoltaic project in Uganda as an example. The engineering and funds came from Europe, and the technical solutions were provided by China. Multi-party collaboration allowed each to show its strengths. In fields such as medical equipment and new energy vehicles, the European market is also emerging with a lot of willingness to cooperate with China.
"The process of opening up may have twists and turns, but the needs of various countries to improve labor productivity and improve people's lives have not changed, and practical requirements such as mutual learning from each other in scientific and technological progress and joint responses to climate change will not disappear." said Zhang Yuyan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' academic department.
The value of openness is reflected in universal benefit and win-win results.
This Hongqiao Forum released the "Exporting China Capability Development Report" for the first time, focusing on helping the global South improve its export capabilities, provide public goods for balanced global development, and allow more developing countries to share opportunities in the Chinese market.
Liao Fan, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China's large market not only provides demand for advanced manufacturing, but also creates opportunities for resource-based products and specialty agricultural products, providing an inclusive market for economies at different stages of development.
The "World Openness Report 2026" points out that the three major waves of the times, digital economy, green and low-carbon, and South-South cooperation, have injected more resilient new momentum into world openness and expanded new boundaries that are more inclusive.
Angolan Minister of Industry and Trade Rui Migens de Oliveira said that Angola needs China’s professional experience in the construction of special economic zones, its outstanding strength in the field of renewable energy and its advantages in digital innovation to help it build an industrial base for sustainable development.
The essence of globalization is complementary factor endowments, deepening industrial division of labor and fair distribution of benefits. Only by deepening open cooperation and industrial collaboration to build sustainable partnerships can we narrow the development gap and enhance the resilience of the production and supply chain.
At the "Global Economic Rebalancing: Smooth Trade, Industrial Collaboration and Inclusive Development" sub-forum, Ke Peiyu, President of Cargill Agriculture and Trade Asia Pacific Group, said that in the face of challenges in the global food sector, the key to economic rebalancing is not to eliminate short-term fluctuations, but to build connections, cultivate capabilities, establish mutual trust, and build a stable and sustainable global trade ecosystem.
Hongqiao is like a bridge, connecting the world; thinking is like light, illuminating the way forward.
The Hongqiao Forum builds consensus, gathers strength, and conveys the same belief: All countries in the world share weal and woe. Only by adhering to open cooperation can we withstand risks and challenges; only by adhering to mutual achievements can we achieve mutual empowerment. China has always adhered to a high level of opening up to the outside world and opened its doors to share opportunities with the world.
