Synergy between China, EU development plan to be world economy's driving force: Chinese ambassador

Head of the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) Yang Yanyi here on Monday expressed that synergy between the "Belt and Road initiative" and the Juncker Investment Plan will be driving forces to the world economy.

She made the remarks at the China-Europe Investment and connectivity cooperation forum.

Yang noted that the world economic outlook was still clouded by considerable uncertainties and volatilities.

"Demand in the advanced economies remained lackluster and growth potential anemic. The key markets are expected to encounter varying degrees of economic slowdown," she said.

However, judging from the overwhelming participation by nations from different continents in the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and positive responses to exploration of building synergy between the "Belt and Road initiative" and the Juncker Investment Plan, it is apparent that the regional and global market regard these visions and efforts as driving forces that can provide the world economy with fresh and much-needed impetus to the otherwise mundane global growth outlook, she said.

"Further more, the combined forces of the "Belt and Road initiative" and the Juncker Investment Plan will contribute to advancing our respective restructuring and development agenda and building a community of shared interest," she said.

The advancement of the shared vision and agenda between China and the EU including the proposed China-EU joint investment cooperation, the launching of China -EU connectivity platform and AIIB,as well as China-EU cooperation in the digital economy including 5G will facilitate China's medium-high-speed growth and medium-high-level development and the EU's investment in resources of jobs and growth, and notably in its Single Digital Market, deepening its Economic and Monetary Union and consolidating the Euro area as well as achieving more fundamental reform, she said.

In the meantime, Yang said that China and the EU should take each other's development as opportunities, manage "irritants" in a prudent manner and make sure that ideological differences or specific disagreements would not come in the way of long-term and steady growth of their relations.

The two sides vowed to achieve long-term, sustainable benefits by increasing strategic communication and political mutual trust, synergizing their respective development strategies, and deepening cooperation in business, investment, finance and infrastructure and translating the potential of their strategy and initiative into tangible benefits, she said.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the EU in March 2014, both China and the EU agreed to forge comprehensive strategic partnership featuring peace, growth, reform and civilization and strengthen the global dimension of their cooperation.

As follow-ups to Xi's historic visit, the 17th China-EU Summit held in June identified five priority areas of cooperation, namely exploring synergies between the One Belt One Road initiative and the Juncker Investment Plan, connectivity, digital economy, legal affairs dialogue and facilitation of people-to-people exchanges.

And the 5th China-EU High-Level Economic Dialogue held in September discussed in depth implementation of the consensus reached at the 17th China-EU Summit, focusing on strengthening cooperation on investment. Endit