A Philippine view of 40 years of 'breathtaking' changes (3)

Arroyo visits the area struck by the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province, on Aug 7, 2008, with her husband. YIN GANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

"I was a contemporary of two Chinese presidents, president Jiang Zemin and president Hu Jintao," Arroyo said. "During that time, it was my policy to develop good relations with China, especially with regard to business and economic cooperation.

"These are also part of what I came to realize from my old days in the (Association for Philippines-China Understanding) and because of the great opportunities from our neighbor, China, becoming such an important economic powerhouse."

China's GDP grew by an average of around 9.5 percent a year in comparable prices from 1978 to 2017, and the country's foreign trade has grown by 14.5 percent a year in US dollars in the same period.

Arroyo said one thing that has enabled China to achieve such rapid growth is the country's strong, long-term national vision, along with its strong national will to carry out that vision.

Over the past 40 years, China has continued to remove institutional barriers to development as part of its overall reform and opening-up policy, from the rural household contract responsibility system to urban economic system reform, from the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone to accession to the World Trade Organization, from opening the coastal and border areas to developing the western inland region, and from pilot free trade zones to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Analysts have said reform and opening-up has changed the global economic landscape and value chain, and that may lead to an unfolding historic trajectory as China vows to further open up its economy.