China to strengthen economic globalization
Flemming Besenbacher, Chairman of Carlsberg Group: Premier Li, thank you for your excellent speech this morning, a very interesting speech. As a university professor, now also a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, I greatly admire China for your long-term investment in education and research and development. I think this is the only way to combat some of the grand challenges we are seeing in our society today like climate change, environmental change and change in biodiversity. I have two questions for you relating to the private enterprises. The Chinese government has been gradually implementing further tax and fee reduction policies and financial support policies in favor of enterprises, especially private ones. As the external environment today is worsening, will the Chinese government introduce more measures to help private enterprises survive and develop? The second question is, what measures will the government take to unlock the potential of this huge market?
Premier Li: I am happy to see a university professor here. I know the Davos Forum is not just an economic forum for gathering of business leaders, but also an important one for representatives from the academia. This shows that the Forum is both open and inclusive.
In the face of slowing global growth and rising protectionism, China's economy has also come under new downward pressure, which is reflected in how it has rather directly affected the development of small and medium-sized companies and private firms in China, and even the survival of some enterprises. So, we must pay very close attention to this development.