In late September, Chinese scholars from more than 20 universities and research institutions convened at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province, to attend the Fourth Global Economic Governance Academic Forum, when they held in-depth discussions under the theme of “Chinese Path to Modernization and the Reform of the Global Economic Governance System.”

In recent years, global economic governance has faced growing challenges across multiple fields, including trade investment regulations, financial governance, industrial and supply chain governance, climate change, and economic inequality.

The fourth restructuring of global industrial and supply chains is subject to institutional, technological, and uncertain factors, said Han Jian, a professor from the Business School at Nanjing University. He emphasized the importance of industrial standards, development platforms, talent, governance power, as well as the importance of maintaining the public good attribute of global industrial and supply chains, during the restructuring process.

Wang Tinghui, president of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, believes that economic reform should prioritize high-quality development, and new quality productive forces are key to this objective. Institutional reform plays a significant role in facilitating revolutionary technological breakthroughs, accelerating the innovative integration and optimal allocation of factors, and advancing deep industrial transformation and upgrade.

Zhang Yuyan, a Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and dean of the School of International Politics and Economics at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that productive forces lie at the core of modernization, and relations of production should align with the development of productive forces. In this regard, the enhancement of total factor productivity is essential.

As artificial intelligence develops rapidly, international trade, international division of labor, capital flow, artificial intelligence, and institutional factors should also be incorporated into total factor productivity, apart from labor, capital, and technological advances, Zhang added.

Chinese modernization should not only be development-oriented, but also focus on modernizing the system and capacity for national governance, striking a balance between the government and the market, between common development and security, and between independent and unilateral opening up, urged Xu Xiujun, a research fellow from the National Academy of Chinese Modernization at CASS.

After analyzing the potential impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on China’s macroeconomy and the global market, Wang Yong, academic deputy dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, suggested fully leveraging international markets to enhance the benefits of infrastructure investment and amplify the economic multiplier effect of China’s external market, thereby maximizing the BRI’s positive impact.

Global economic governance involves economic issues like international trade, monetary finance, and foreign investment and aid, and encompasses institutional factors like international systems, organizations, and norms, said Song Xinning, a professor from the School of Humanities and Social Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Li Wei, deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, argued that international systems are a crucial point of departure in global governance studies, as the two are closely related.

The forum was jointly held by the GDUFS, the Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, and the Institute of World Economics and Politics at CASS.