China's reform, opening-up add certainty to world, Indonesian envoy says

China's high-quality development and high-level opening-up inject certainty to a world plagued by challenges including weak economic recovery and frequent regional conflicts, an Indonesian diplomat said.

Parulian George Andreas Silalahi, minister at the Indonesian embassy in Beijing, has followed the developments of the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee, which decided to comprehensively deepen reform and opening-up and outlined over 300 reform measures to be implemented in the next five years.

"I think every country is really watching and eager to see what are the outcomes of the third plenum and what we have learned so far is that continued reform and opening-up plans are being rolled out and would be carried out effectively," he said.

"It is a positive sign, which shows stability and certainty of China's policies, especially nowadays when the global economy is very vulnerable and sensitive because of the non-economic issues such as conflicts in several areas," he added.

Silalahi spoke highly of moves by China to share its development dividends with other countries so as to achieve common development.

Taking the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway as an example, he said the railway has transported four million passengers, reflecting positive response from the public to the Southeast Asia's first high-speed train.

"It is very promising how the two countries can really complement each other with a high-tech and big project like that," he said.

Silalahi also underlined the mutually beneficial nature of trade and economic ties between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Indonesia is a member.

"We see China as a big market and a big producer in global supply chain and in return, ASEAN, with an area of over 600 million people, is also a big economy neighboring China," he said.

China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for four consecutive years with bilateral trade soaring to $702.3 billion last year.

Noting that 2024 has been designated as the ASEAN-China Year of People-to-People Exchanges, he said countries need to avail of this opportunity and go deeper to promote cultural exchanges to further nurture profound partnership between the two sides.

He mentioned the China-proposed Global Civilization Initiative, saying some of its ideas, for example, championing dialogue and mutual learning among civilizations, resonate with those of Indonesia.

"In my country, there is a proverb saying ‘If you don't know someone, how can you love someone?' We have to understand each other, and hopefully we can respect each other and then we have an everlasting relationship," he said.