The China Development Forum (CDF) 2019 was held at the Diaoyutai State Guest house in Beijing on 23-25 March, 2019. Chancellor Li Jian'ge, also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sun Yefang Economic Science Foundation, delivered a speech themed "A New Frontier of Opening-up: fromFree-Trade Zones to Free-Trade Ports".

The theme of CDF 2019 - "Greater Opening-up for Win-Win Cooperation" is closely related to China's four decades of reform and opening-up. Premier Li Keqiang talked with foreign entrepreneurs and scholars before the forum. Vice Premier Han Zheng attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Ninety-six Chairmen or CEOs from Fortune 500 and global pioneering companies including Tim Cook, CEO of Apple inc., and more than 50 international organization officials and scholars attended the forum.

Chancellor Li's speech started with the review of Hong Kong's free trade. He expressed that the development from free-trade zones to free-trade ports indicates the determination of Chinese government to expand opening-up. China has accelerated the implementation of the Free-Trade Zones strategy since 2012, launching the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone  (PFTZ) in 2012 and the Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian Free PFTZs in 2015. At the Boao Forum for Asia 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping announced the launch of Hainan PFTZ, which becomes the largest special economic zone and free-trade zone in China. As a benchmark forhigh-level opening-up, China has proposed Free-Trade Ports strategy recently. 

Chancellor Li pointed out that there is an inseparable relation between free-trade zonesand free-trade ports. "The free-trade zone is a large-scale free-trade port, while the free-trade port plays a pivotal and pioneering role in the development of free-trade zone. A new pattern of full opening up and development in the southeastern coastal provinces has been formed," Chancellor Li said.

CDF is an annual high-level international conference held in China right after the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) every year. Initiated in 2000, CDF has made remarkable contributions to mutual trust and international collaborations between China and the world.

Text by GTIIT News & Public Affairs

Photos by Will Sun