On January 25th, the Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping attended the China-US Business Alliance 2024 New Year event and delivered a keynote speech on the bilateral economic and trade cooperation opportunities. Benjamin Stein, President of the China-U.S. Business Alliance, moderated the event. Maisie Ho, Director, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York; Anson Law, Chief Representative of Hong Kong Monetary Authority in New York; and more than 100 Alliance members represented at the event.
Huang Ping said that this year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the United States. The two heads of state exchanged congratulatory letters and spoke highly of the achievements made since the establishment of diplomatic ties. The two heads of state held a historic meeting in San Francisco last November, where they outlined the "San Francisco Vision" for the future, charting the course and adding impetus to bilateral relations. President Xi emphasized the five pillars for the sound, steady and sustained growth of China-U.S. Relations. We need to work together and start from San Francisco to implement the important consensus reached at the heads of state meeting.
Huang Ping introduced China's economic situation and the new achievements of high-quality development. He stressed that the overall trend of China's economy in the long run will not change, and the characteristics of China's economy with strong resilience, great potential and strong vitality remain unchanged. China is an important engine of global development. Over the years, its contribution to world economic growth has stayed at around 30 percent. GDP growth in 2023 is expected to be around 5.2%, higher than the expected target of around 5% set at the beginning of the year. We now emphasize quality rather than speed. China's demographic dividend is turning into talent dividend. China now rank first in the world in terms of the size of talent pool, human resources in science and technology and the total number of researchers. The number of high-tech enterprises has increased to about 400,000, and the number of unicorn enterprises ranks second in the world. China remains an important market for multinational companies and will provide a broader space for international trade and investment growth. The widespread demand for high-quality cultural and entertainment products from China's 400 million middle-class has provided new opportunities for US business to invest in China. China's determination to open up at a higher level will not change, and its door will only open wider. Foreign companies are encouraged to share the development dividends and the opportunities of China's hyper-scale market. China will take the initiative to benchmark the rules of advanced international markets, continue to reduce the negative list for foreign investment access, guarantee the national treatment of foreign-invested enterprises, and work tirelessly to foster a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment.
Huang Ping said that looking ahead to 2024, the business communities of the two countries should strengthen confidence in win-win cooperation and strengthen mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation in key areas such as technology innovation, digital economy, green and low-carbon transformation. The members of the Alliance should seize the opportunities of China's financial opening up, make full use of important exhibition platforms such as the CIIE, CIFTIS, CICP, ect., actively expand trade and investment cooperation with China, participate in provincial and state economic and trade exchanges, promote the implementation of the "San Francisco Vision", and make new contributions to the steady and healthy development of China-US relations.
In their speeches, Maisie Ho and Anson Law introduced the important achievements of HK in consolidating and upgrading its status as an international financial center and building itself into a fin-tech hub in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the connectivity and facilitate measures adopted to enhance financial co-operation between the two places.
The event also invited some alliance members, representatives of financial and consulting institutions to conduct "Shark Tank" interactive activities.
The China-U.S. Business Alliance is established in New York in 2011, which mainly composed of representatives from local financial, legal, consulting and other professional institutions. It is committed to promoting bilateral economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. The Alliance organizes 4-5 events for member exchanges every year on topics such as the economic situation between China and the United States, and today’s event is the first one in 2024.