China Voice: Commitment to reform, opening up brings China and the world closer

Three decades of reform and opening up have turned China into a prosperous land with close ties to the rest of the world. China's commitment to that endeavor will not change.

"The fundamental way out for China's development is reform. China will never close the door that it has opened to the world, but will do more in opening up," President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday during his state visit to the United States.

The words from China's leader are confirmation of the country's commitment to reform and opening up -- a reliable way to achieve continued growth and remain a key engine of global growth.

Through reform and opening up, China has grown to be the world's second largest economy. In the first half of the year, China contributed around 30 percent to world economic growth.

As China becomes strong, its people have become richer and more confident in how they spend their money. Their itchy feet have taken them to almost every corner of the world. And wherever they go, they shop.

Last year, 117 million Chinese took foreign trips. As the world's biggest spenders, they left 1 trillion yuan (157 billion U.S. dollars) abroad.

China's growth, based on opening up, will be good for the entire world. In the next five years, the country is expected to import goods worth 10 trillion U.S. dollars. Outbound investment will exceed 500 billion U.S. dollars.

On the domestic front, authorities are determined to forge ahead with reforms to unlock vitality, and pull off a managed slowdown as the economy transitions from being driven by investment and credit expansion to a more sustainable model led by consumption and innovation.

To achieve that, as many as 330 reforms were planned at policy meeting in 2013. Among these ambitions, one informing principle is that the will of the market should be decisive in allocation of resources.

China's path, however, is not free from hindrances. With a cooling domestic property market and falling external demand, China's economy has hit a soft patch, growing a mere 7 percent in the first six months, the slowest pace in nearly a quarter of a century and a far cry from the double-digit expansion of previous decades.

Reform in the face of such strong headwinds will never be easy, but the country is not afraid and structural changes have the potential to reinvigorating the economy while new growth drivers emerge.

That China's future is bright is not just a local meme, but one shared by the whole world. In the first eight months of the year, foreign direct investment grew 9 percent to over 85 billion U.S. dollars.

It is China's solemn promise to stay focused on reform and opening up, not only for its own sake but to benefit the world. Endi