China to fully leverage the advantages of its domestic market

China will fully leverage the advantages of its massive domestic market, making it a prime test ground for global innovation and turning the vast market into a shared opportunity for the world, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said on Friday.

"China's current population of over 1.4 billion, combined with the fact that the country's middle-income group is expected to exceed 800 million in the next decade, represents an enormous market potential," Wang said at a news conference held by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Wang stressed that China will further lower market entry threshold for foreign investment, in accordance with the principle of "sooner rather than later, faster rather than slower".

The service sector will be the focus of the next round of openness, as the country plans to expand pilot programs in areas such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, Wang said.

China will also steadily expand the opening-up of the education and culture sectors, Wang added.

Commenting on the China-US economic relationship, Wang said,"The previous four rounds of China-US economic and trade consultations have fully demonstrated that, on the basis of mutual respect and equal consultation, China and the US possess the capacity to address each other's concerns and find the right way to coexist."

As a responsible major country, China has consistently opposed decoupling and has firmly upheld the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, Wang said.