Opening ceremony of 'Understanding China - GBA Dialogue' held in Guangzhou

"Understanding China-GBA Dialogue" opened on April 19 in Guangzhou with the theme of "Chinese Modernization and New Opportunities for the World".

World-renowned politicians, strategists, scholars, entrepreneurs, foreign envoys, representatives of international organizations and multinational companies in China, as well as heads of relevant ministries and local governments, scholars and entrepreneurs are invited to this year's special forum to share views on Understanding China and to interpret the profound meaning of Chinese modernization and the new opportunities China's development brings to the world.

Wang Gang, Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said while addressing the opening ceremony that the most reliable path is the one that a nation pursues through its own exploration. A development model created by a country based on its own national conditions is a new choice for human civilization. On the road to modernization, China has completed in a few decades the industrialization process that took Western developed countries hundreds of years, creating a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Practice has proved that Chinese modernization is sound and steady, and the world has seen a new vision of modernization. Chinese modernization is not a challenge, but an opportunity; It will not threaten anyone. It will only benefit the world and provide a new path for mankind to achieve modernization.

Wang Gang said that Chinese modernization is an opportunity for development and will inject strong certainty into an uncertain world. Chinese modernization is an opportunity for peace and will surely augment security and stability in a volatile and changing world. Chinese modernization is an opportunity for cooperation and will surely set off a wave openness and win-win cooperation in a world that is moving against the current. Chinese modernization is an opportunity for civilization and will inevitably provide a new form of choice for the world in which the mode is monopolized.

Wang Weizhong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and Governor of Guangdong Province, said on the occation that that since its inception in 2013, "Understanding China" has become one of the most influential platforms for the world to understand China's development strategy.

He said Guangdong would endeavor to promote the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and make it a strategic fulcrum of the new development pattern, a demonstration zone of high-quality development and a pioneer of Chinese modernization.

Guangdong will give full play to the role of "two important Windows", actively build a bridge between China and the world, and make greater contribution to promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and other countries and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Wang said.  

Zheng Bijian, founding Chairman of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, said at the opening ceremony that the Chinese people have created two miracles: rapid economic development and long-term social stability.

"One of the important points is that we will unswervingly adhere to the hard truth of development, adhere to the people-oriented new development concept, and adhere to high-quality development as the primary task of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way," Zheng said, adding that from the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative to the Global Civilization Initiative, China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of international order and a promoter of human civilization progress. To sum up, it is the mission of "striving for progress for mankind and seeking common ground for the world.

Melnikov Ivanovich, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma; Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former president of the Philippines；Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former Prime Minister of France; Goh Chok Tong, former Prime Minister of Singapore also addressed the opening ceremony via video.