With Openness and Innovation: Shaping the Global Economy as its theme, the 2017 Fortune Global Forum took place on December 6-8 in Guangzhou City, China's southern gateway to the world. The forum facilitated the ongoing discussions among international institutions, business people and academics on world economic development in the post-financial crisis era, particularly the topic of how to boost world economic growth.

One of the outcomes of the forum was the consensus reached on the positive impact of openness and innovation on the world economy. Openness is the basic precondition for constructing a new pattern for the world economy, while innovation is the key to both promoting economic upgrading and constructing that new pattern.

Economic globalization originated in the West, and involvement in globalization has expedited China's economic growth. Today, despite the anti-globalization trend and trade protectionism in some Western countries, China remains committed to expanding openness and championing economic globalization.

The histories of China and other nations prove that conservatism only results in a country being left behind. Only openness will push it forward. The Fortune forum participants—mostly leading business people from various sectors—appealed for an open international environment and opposed the anti-globalization trend, which is blamed for stymieing global economic recovery and eroding the foundation for innovation.

China has become one of the biggest contributors to world economic growth. Forum attendees spoke highly of China's opening-up policy and development practices and ideas. China's economic pattern has undergone profound changes in the past four decades. New technologies and innovations like artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, unmanned aerial vehicles, Internet Plus, nanometer-scale engineering, and 3D printing are fostering changes in various sectors. China has made great achievements in innovating growth patterns and eliminating redundant capacity by formulating policies in line with these changes. China now has a sounder economic growth pattern than 10 years ago.

China has assured the world of its determination to break new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October.

In his congratulatory letter to the forum, President Xi Jinping welcomed global entrepreneurs to invest in China and enjoy opportunities presented by the nation's reform and development, so as to usher in a better future for economic and trade cooperation between China and the rest of the world. With anti-globalization prevailing in the West, China is expected to play an important role in upholding global opening up and innovation in the coming years.