As the 7th Qingdao Multinationals Summit drew to a close, participating business leaders said China's continued push for institutional opening, together with its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), provides stability amid global economic uncertainty.
The Summit, which drew 357 multinational companies from 44 countries and regions to Qingdao City, east China's Shandong Province, concluded Wednesday. Set against a backdrop of rising protectionism and shifting global supply chains, the summit highlighted broad support for rules-based trade and sustainable growth as China advances its institutional reforms and innovation priorities.
"If you look at our renewable energy, and all of those countries we're in, 99 percent of the renewable equipment was purchased from China. And if you look at our projects, we have almost 110 projects around the world. Almost half of them were done by Chinese EPCs [Engineering, Procurement, Construction]. So China's engineering excellence, China's quality and efficient delivery of projects, coupled with ACWA Power's strong presence in those countries and long-term operational reliability, I believe helped us a lot. It's thanks to the Belt and Road we continue to bring higher and higher quality projects with more and more efficiency to those customers in those countries," said Saleh Al Khabti, president of ACWA China, an electric power generation company.
China's commitment to a transparent, rules-based global trading environment also drew praise from international institutions.
"China has been a leader in the discussions within the global trading system and in the WTO on trying to maintain open, transparent, rules-based trade. Because with all the rules, it may not be great, but without them, it will be worse. So let's try to fix what we have and not simply destroy it. And I think where China is now is that it can play that significant role in helping to keep the process open, keep it transparent, and continue to push on investment facilitation on the e-commerce platforms, on the need for development. I think China has been one of the countries that has been most open and most interested in advocacy for the development dimension in the WTO," said Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a multilateral agency that connects small businesses in developing countries to international markets.
Business leaders stressed that China's deepening innovation, enormous market scale, and advanced industrial upgrades offer compelling reasons for new and ongoing global investment.
With the theme "Multinationals and China: Advancing with the 15th Five-Year Plan for Innovation and Future," the summit included an opening ceremony, dedicated forums on high-quality multinational growth, and a series of specialized sessions.
Multinationals back rules-based trade as China accelerates institutional opening up
