The CES 2011 annual conference, “Ten Years after WTO Accession: China and the World Economy”, was held at Jiuhua Resort & Convention Center, Beijing, on June 18-19, 2011. The conference was jointly hosted by University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. More than 250 participants from about 20 countries attended 50 concurrent sessions, where a total of 180 papers in English and 20 papers in Chinese were presented and discussed along with two round-table forums on macroeconomic situation and healthcare reform. The keynote speakers included Mr. Quan Chong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, Eric Maskin, 2007 Nobel Laureate in economics, Dr. Wen Hai, vice president of Peking University, Mr. Octavio Peralta, General Secretary of Association of Development Financing in Asia and Pacific, and Mr. Peter Harder, President of Canada-China Business Council.
At the opening ceremony, CES President Yanling Wang gave a passionate address. She pointed it out that China’s re-accession to the WTO in 2001 was a big milestone in WTO history, given the sheer size of the Chinese economy, the many years it took for the negotiations, and the concessions China made. A decade later, China’s economy is the second largest in the world; China is one of the biggest trading partners for the major economies; China has been the largest FDI recipient among developing countries; and Chinese firms' overseas investment has been active and started to show scale. Today, the world economy is slowly walking out of the biggest recession in the recent history. Countries have taken bold measures in stimulus packages to get the economy moving forward. The practices each country took and the joint decisions at the world stage clearly painted a positive picture: national economies are connected; through the inter-national economic linkages, no country's economy can be shielded from major world events. Given China's big size, and its strong effective economic measures, China has played an important role leading the world out of recession. Today's China redefines the world economic relationships in many positive ways. President Wang concludes her talk by saying that it is thus a timely gathering of worldwide economists interested in the Chinese economy to exchange ideas and discuss future developments.
President Yanling Wang thanked the host university, UIBE, for their enthusiasm, generosity, hospitality and professionalism. She also wished UIBE well for their 60th anniversary.
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http://news.uibe.edu.cn/uibenews/10_article.php?articleid=14543