AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — Themed “Sharing Advantaged Resources,” the Fourth Session of NEXT Summit was held here on Wednesday, aiming to promote scientific and technological innovation and to enhance global industrial cooperation in the post-COVID era.
The summit, with online and offline events, has attracted more than 60 senior politicians, scholars, and business leaders from 12 countries.
When delivering a keynote speech online, Essam Sharaf, the rotating president of NEXT Federation and former prime minister of Egypt, said the world should choose multilateralism over unilateralism, free trade over protectionism, and coexistence over superiority.
He also called on countries in the world to seek dialogue and mutual understanding, instead of resorting to confrontation and clashes, between different civilizations.
Ruan Ping, China’s consul general in Auckland, said the international community is facing a historic choice between multilateralism and unilateralism, as well as between cooperation and confrontation.
China’s economy enjoys stable recovery and enhancement, and that will provide new opportunities for the region’s development and prosperity, and make new contributions to the global recovery and growth, Ruan noted.
Looking ahead to 2021, the economy of China and some countries of Southeast Asia bounced back faster than expected, which is encouraging news to all the parties concerned in the region, said Don Brash, former governor of the New Zealand Reserve Bank.
The summit is co-hosted by NEXT Federation and China Economic Information Service. The NEXT summit was held in Auckland in 2017, China’s Hangzhou in 2018, and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in 2019.