The International Conference to Commemorate the 2575th Anniversary of Confucius' Birth, which is also the 7th Congress of the International Confucian Association (ICA), opened in Beijing on Saturday.
Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, addressed the opening ceremony.
Wang said efforts will be made to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's fine traditional culture and strengthen exchanges and mutual learning among countries, ethnic groups and cultures around the world.
This will not only further enrich the Chinese civilization but also contribute to a more vibrant and diverse global civilization, he added.
Wang called for carrying forward and promoting Confucianism and all outstanding traditional cultures, thereby making new contributions to the development of a human community with a shared future.
The opening ceremony was presided over by ICA President Sun Chunlan.
Former Japanese Prime Minister and Council Chair of the ICA Yasuo Fukuda, former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, either in person or through other means, delivered speeches. They emphasized the importance of Confucianism in addressing crises and resolving conflicts.
Ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 B.C.) founded a school of thought, deeply influential on later generations, known as Confucianism.
International conference marking Confucius' 2575th birth anniversary kicks off
The recently-approved action plan for stabilizing foreign investment has attracted a new wave of foreign-funded projects across China.
Formulated to ensure stable foreign investment in 2025, the action plan was approved by a State Council executive meeting last month.
Under the plan, China will support pilot regions in effectively implementing opening-up policies related to such areas as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, providing whole-journey services for foreign-invested projects in these sectors.
In a foreign-funded intelligent manufacturing factory in Suzhou of east China's Jiangsu Province, engineers are making final adjustments to a vehicle-mounted display production line with an annual production capacity of 650,000 units, which is expected to contribute an annual increase in output value of 1.3 billion yuan (about 179.5 million U.S. dollars).
"In addition to the new production line, we will invest an additional 50 million yuan (about 6.9 million U.S. dollars) or so to upgrade the old production line this year, which can also realize automated and digitized production," said Ge Fengchen, general manager of Harman Suzhou branch.
In a smart factory of a foreign-funded elevator production company in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province, two intelligent production lines have just been put into use.
In addition to the Guangzhou factory, this intelligent production line is also scheduled to be put into use in its factories in Shanghai, Tianjin and Chengdu.
"This production line integrates a central control system, a joint control system, and an automatic positioning system. While using the (digital) twin technology on the management platform and automated inspection of the entire process, the production line is able to predict and prevent possible failures," said Jia Yuhui, president of Hitachi Elevator (China) Co., Ltd.
In January alone, a total of 4,229 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established nationwide with 97.59 billion yuan of paid-in foreign investment, increasing by 27.5 percent from December last year, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce.
"In recent years, the utilized foreign investment in the park has maintained a high growth, and a number of high-quality projects have been launched. The paid-in foreign investment in the first quarter of this year is expected to reach 1 billion U.S. dollars, maintaining growth momentum," said Liu Hua, vice chairman of the Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.
China's favorable policy attracts new wave of foreign-funded projects
