On 14 January, the First G20 Sherpa Meeting under Chinese presidency opened in Beijing. Over 400 delegates, including Sherpas of G20 members, guest countries and international organizations attended the meeting. State Councilor Yang Jiechi addressed the Opening Ceremony of the meeting.

In his remarks entitled Strengthen Partnership for a Better Future, Yang Jiechi pointed out that the past 8 years of the G20 have yielded bountiful fruits of cooperation and offered much experience to take stock of. In particular, the G20 has upheld the spirit of partnership at times of difficulty, stayed focused on the core mission of growth, charted the course of international economic cooperation and remained action-oriented to deliver results. For the G20 to go thus far, it has largely acted by these approaches and principles. And these need to be carried forward to ensure continued success and bring in even brighter prospects for G20 cooperation.

Yang Jiechi emphasized that the Hangzhou Summit is themed on "Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy". Bearing that in mind, the G20 will have four priorities this year: "breaking a new path for growth", "more effective and efficient global economic and financial governance", "robust international trade and investment" and "inclusive and interconnected development". China hopes that the efforts to be made this year will push the G20 to play a leading role, demonstrate ambition and chart the course for world economic growth and international economic cooperation. And through the efforts, the G20 will innovate institutional building and create cooperation platforms to shift from a mechanism of crisis response to one of long-term governance, and set rules and goals and ensure their implementation to provide yardstick by which to evaluate relevant cooperation.

Yang Jiechi indicated that China's economy will continue to move towards a sustained and stable growth and this is the general trend that will stay unchanged. We will pursue innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, drive the economy through reform and innovation, press ahead with structural reform, implement the innovation-driven strategy and pay more attention to the quality and efficiency of development in order to keep the Chinese economy operating within a reasonable range and achieve sound and sustained growth. At the same time, China will open wider and at a higher level both domestically and to the outside world, and will actively participate in international economic cooperation and global economic governance so as to facilitate its endeavor at home to deepen reforms in all respects and maintain a medium-high growth rate.

Yang Jiechi pointed out that this Sherpa Meeting marks the starting point of the preparations for the Hangzhou Summit and it is also an occasion to set goals and chart the course for the upcoming Summit. Yang hoped that parties to the meeting will, with ambition and determination, share insights with each other and enable the G20 to play a greater role in boosting world economic growth, improving global economic governance and making life better for the people of all countries.

The G20, widely recognized as the premier forum for international economic cooperation, has grouped major developed and new emerging market countries. The Hangzhou Summit in 2016 will be held on 4-5 September with a theme on "Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy". This Sherpa Meeting is the first of its kind since China took over the G20 presidency and it is designed to made preparations for the Hangzhou Summit. The meeting will have in-depth discussions on such agenda items as breaking a new path for growth, more effective and efficient global economic and financial governance, robust international trade and investment, and inclusive and interconnected development. All parties expected the Hangzhou Summit to yield positive results.