China's global economic role is praised

China's commitment to international economic organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum deserves understanding and praise, observers said.

Officials from the United States, Indonesia and Peru discussed China's international economic commitment in a panel discussion at the Asia Society in New York on Monday.

They said that China's economic commitment will play an increasingly important role and make contributions to existing international economic agreements and initiatives.

China is not going to withdraw from the global economy, but is going to undertake fundamental adjustment in its overall economic sectors, said Mathew Mathews, senior official for APEC in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US State Department.

"China is looking into the future but is not dependent on the same old mode, which has high rates of investment that no economy could sustain," said Mathews. "China has realized that they need to refocus on the domestic demand."

He said one of the most successful examples of economic cooperation between China and US has been in the G20, the international forum of 20 major economies, where "the US and China work very close".

Mathews said that China has structured its economy so that it can grow steadily while assuring that the return on capital meets the requirement of long-term investment instead of short-sighted corruption. He said that China has been very successful in its anti-corruption campaign.

Mari Elka Pangetsu, former Indonesian minister of Tourism and Creative Economy and minister of trade, said that there were rivalries and different degrees of engagement in regional economic cooperation, but that China's proposal for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the One Belt One Road initiative, was about the connectivity of the region and mainly focused on infrastructural capacities.

"We should not say AIIB and One Belt One Road initiative versus FTA (Free Trade Agreement) and RCEP" (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), said Pangetsu. "They are different and complementary." She said the word "versus' should be replaced by "plus".

Juan Francisco Raffo, Peru's representative on the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the 2016 chair of ABAC, said China's economy "matters a lot to Peru's economy". Raffo said he was expecting a promised free trade agreement between China and Peru because China has already become the one of the biggest trading partners and investors in Peru's economy.

"China is a powerful civilization with a lot of resources", said Raffo. "We need to acknowledge that China is a big player."