China releases World Openness Report at import expo

SHANGHAI -- China on Friday released the World Openness Report 2021, analyzing the global trends in opening-up, economic governance, global trade and investment.

The report comprises 12 chapters, mainly on the World Openness Index, economic globalization, global economic governance, trade and investment, China's opening-up, and the Belt and Road Initiative.

According to the publication, the World Openness Index, which measures 129 major economies, had been fluctuating between 0.74 and 0.78 from 2008 to 2019, showing an overall trend of volatility and decline.

Opening-up is the only way for a country to achieve prosperity and development, a key step to its solution of contemporary problems, and also the fundamental driving force for the progress of human civilizations, the report stated.

It added that multilateralism and regionalism are the two wheels driving economic globalization and governance, and the two wheels need to work together to improve global economic governance.

New trends are evolving from global economic governance, including more multilateral governance platforms and changing governance landscape, with governance reform still lagging behind, according to the report.

All countries should adhere to multilateralism and open regionalism, give full play to the constructive role of global and regional multilateral mechanisms, jointly safeguard rules-based multilateral trading system, and strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, the report stated.

The report, compiled by the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Research Center for Hongqiao International Economic Forum, was released during the ongoing fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

China releases World Openness Index

World Openness Index, which gauged the openness level of 129 major economies from 2008 to 2019, was released Friday at the fourth Hongqiao International Economic Forum in Shanghai.

The index, compiled by the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Research Center for Hongqiao International Economic Forum, was included in the World Openness Report 2021.

The 10 most open economies in 2019 were Singapore, Germany, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Canada, and Malta, according to the index.

Though around 80 percent of economies saw their level of openness expand, the global index declined from 0.7790 to 0.7480, or around 4 percent, from 2008 to 2019.

The United States, which was the most open economy in 2008, slid down to the 22nd position, with its openness index dropping to 0.7666 from 0.9328.

As the United States accounts for about 25 percent of the world economy, the country has dragged down the regional and global pace of cross-border opening up, the report noted.

The continual expansion of openness of China has raised the country's index ranking from the 62nd in 2008 to the 40th in 2019, up 22 places and reaching 0.7420, showed the index report.

China has rolled out a slew of concrete measures in opening-up, including promoting joint efforts to build the Belt and Road, establishing pilot free trade zones, and hosting the China International Import Expo. These actions have effectively eased the momentum of shrinking global openness, stated the report.

The world still has a great potential for openness, and expanding openness is in the common interest of mankind, the report concluded.