2015年CRI Foreign Officials Hail China's Plan for Sustainable Growth

Former Prime Minister of Italy Mario Monti said China's emphasis on coordination 1 between growth and environmental protection under its new five-year plan will help achieve a greener economy and contribute to global development.

"I think coordination is the key to sustainable growth, both within a country and also globally. So I think it's very important that now China puts a new emphasis on this word. I think this will help China to achieve more balance between sheer economic growth and contribution with respect to the environment."

Former Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong stressed the importance of China's opening up, saying it will bring greater opportunities for growth.

"It's important that China opens its economy as well as its heart to the rest of the world. By heart I mean that China's goals, intentions and processes will have to be understood by the rest of the world. So the economy being opened up provides a lot of opportunities for the people."

Chinese authorities have launched their latest five-year plan of national development last week.

According to the plan, the next-5-year is a crucial period for China to develop its economy with high quality, when China's economic growth will also face a series of challenges.

Nicolas Berggruen is founder 2 of the 21st Century Council, also known as the "Shadow G20", the organizer of the conference.

Berggruen says he is paying close attention to China's innovative 3 measures.

"The innovation that comes from the U.S. is very much from the university system, some from government, but most of it comes from entrepreneurs. So China will again in the liberalization of the economy will have to allow entrepreneurs to take ideas and innovate 4, because innovation cannot all come top down, it also has to come bottom up."

Berggruen added that China needs to be more active and open while focusing on domestic growth.

He said that the international community now has many misunderstandings of China due to lack of knowledge about the country.

He says this is why he launched the Understanding China Conference.

"My experience living in the West is that the understanding of China is very limited and as China has really focused on its domestic growth, it really, maybe, didn't have the time or the energy or the focus, understandably, to convey what China is all about as a culture, as a tradition, as a way of thinking, including the political systems to the West. So 'Understanding China' is really about laying the foundation for respect on both sides of cultures."

Attending this year's conference were 40 former heads of state, former prime ministers, business leaders and scholars from around the world.

For CRI, I'm Guo Yan.