BEIJING — The World Economic Forum on Tuesday hosted a “Special Dialogue with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang” for its members and partners, chaired by its Founder and Executive Chairman, Klaus Schwab.

The session gave business participants from all over the world a chance to hear directly from the premier for the first time since COVID-19. It dealt with Premier Li’s economic recovery plans and his views on global cooperation.

“Global dialogue and cooperation have come under severe pressure since the pandemic broke out, yet they are more important than ever,” Schwab said. “This session with Premier Li is a major step towards more such dialogue and we hope it allows to build new bridges between the West and China in a post-pandemic world.”

“No country will be fully safe until and unless the virus is fully contained globally. We need global cooperation more than ever,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang indicated.

“We must each live up to our responsibility to support multilateralism and to bring a message of hope and confidence to people around the world. We hope that we can all work to promote trade and investment, liberalization and facilitation which has already been severely affected by COVID 19.”

“I have confidence that the Chinese economy is expected to achieve positive growth for the whole year, and this will be enabled by efforts from the government, the business community and average households,” Li said. “When the market vitality is brought into full play the Chinese economy will have a brighter future.”

“As much of the world is still focused on its public health response, it makes us hopeful to hear about the early signs of an economic recovery in China,” said Schwab.

“The recovery plans discussed by Premier Li provide one blueprint to combat the spread of the virus and resume economic life safely. This kind of experience-sharing is crucial to ensuring we leave the pandemic behind us sooner rather than later.”

More than 500 members and partners of the World Economic Forum from over 50 countries around the world participated in the virtual session, including Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Blackstone; Joe Kaeser, president and chief executive officer of Siemens AG; Orit Gadiesh, chairman of Bain & Company Inc.; Jim Hagemann Snabe, chairman of Siemens AG and chairman of A.P. Møller – Mærsk; Chang Dae-Whan, chairman and publisher of Maekyung Media Group. — SG