By CAO DESHENG and ZHOU JIN | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2020-11-13

Representatives of international organizations, foreign business councils in China and executives of multinational companies expect more market and cooperation opportunities as they hail China's commitment to all-around opening-up in its new development blueprint.

Alan Beebe, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said United States companies have been in the country for the past 40-plus years because of China's opening-up.

"We would like to see China being more open, and we do see positive signs," said Beebe, who attended a briefing in Beijing on Thursday on the guiding principles of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held last month.

"And we will be here for the next 100 years, that's really our intent," he added.

He mentioned difficulties in current China-US relations, but said, "We still see a lot of room for cooperation." He cited areas of bilateral cooperation including public health, environmental protection and green economic development.

Beebe said both countries stand to benefit from the phase-one trade agreement between China and the US. "Our member companies enthusiastically support that agreement. So we do hope that will continue," he said.

The Party meeting attracted global attention as it adopted the CPC Central Committee's proposals for the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

The policy document laid out specific targets for China to basically become a modern socialist country by 2035, and it stressed the need to step up the building of the "dual-circulation" development pattern, with the domestic market as the mainstay while domestic and international markets complement each other.

Over 100 representatives of the organizations and companies from major economies, including the US, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Japan, attended the briefing organized by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Tomoki Fujihara, director of the Economic Information Department at the Japan External Trade Organization, said he was aware China had committed to all-around opening-up in the new development blueprint. He said he wanted to know about the concrete steps China will take in the opening-up drive, particularly the implementation of the Foreign Investment Law.

Liu Yunfeng, executive vice-president of Volkswagen Group China, said China's commitment to opening-up has made foreign companies more confident and enthusiastic about increasing investment in the country.

Volkswagen will take advantage of opportunities that the new development paradigm will create and promote relations between China and Germany and between China and the European Union, Liu said.

Matteo Marchisio, country director at the Asia and the Pacific Division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said he expected that China would play a "more significant, active and responsible" role in addressing global development challenges.

China has a long-term vision about its high-quality development, particularly in terms of tackling the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development in the country, he said.