Foreign executives and scholars at the China Development Forum 2026 said China's emphasis on innovation, green technology and stronger domestic demand is reinforcing its path to high‑quality growth.
New Development Bank President Dilma Rousseff and Markus Kamieth, chairman of German chemical giant BASF’s Board of Executive Directors, were among the global guests attending this year's forum, which opened Sunday in Beijing. They joined Chinese government officials, leaders of international organizations, business executives and prominent scholars from around the world.
Both voiced confidence in the next phase of China's modernization under the 15th Five‑Year Plan (2026‑2030), powered by a strategic pivot to more balanced and sustainable growth, an outlook that echoed the forum's theme, "China in its 15th Five‑Year Plan Period: Advancing High‑Quality Development and Creating New Opportunities Together."
Addressing the event on Sunday, Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, elaborated on the key objectives and tasks outlined in China's new five-year plan for green, innovation-driven development, highlighting the country's efforts to enhance basis research and fulfill its climate pledge.
"We will increase the proportion of basic research [in our total spending on R and D], promote the integrated development of education, science and technology, and human resources, push for more original advances, accelerate the efficient transformation and application of major scientific and technological achievements, and continuously foster new quality productive forces. We will actively participate in global environmental and climate governance. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we aim to raise the share of non-fossil fuels in our energy consumption to 25 percent and cut carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 17 percent, thereby making our positive contributions to addressing global climate change," said Han.
In her speech, Rousseff said China's development in the years ahead will inject more stability and certainty into a world fraught with change and turbulence.
"China has been acting as a stabilizing force in the central engine for global stability and growth. High-quality development has emerged as the defined feature of China's current stage of development. It reflects a total transition from growth driven primarily by scale toward growth in productivity and innovation, sustainability and resilience," she said.
In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV), BASF Chairman Markus Kamieth praised China’s 15th Five‑Year Plan for prioritizing domestic demand, advancing sci‑tech innovation and driving a green transition.
"What we are most excited about, what I'm most excited about, in the next five-year plan for China is of course a strong focus on increasing the domestic demand and continue to stimulate the size of the domestic market growth in China. And what I particularly find encouraging is the strong focus on innovation, on new market creation in the new growth sectors of many economies like robotics, like semiconductors and others. And we, of course, as a chemical industry, are particularly interested in the continued focus of China on the sustainable development and the green transformation," he said.
Since its inception in 2000, the China Development Forum has become one of the country's major platforms for dialog among Chinese government officials, global business leaders, international organizations, and scholars.
China’s green, innovation-led growth wins praise at Development Forum
