President Xi presented his vision for the country’s reform and opening-up on a number of occasions last year. In a speech delivered via video link to the Global Trade in Services Summit at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in September, he said Beijing would remain steadfast in opening up wider to the world and would continue to work on a negative list system for managing cross-border services trade. “We will further ease market access for the services sector and will take greater initiative to increase imports of quality services,” he said. In Shenzhen, Guangdong province,－the country’s first special economic zone that celebrated its 40th anniversary in October－Xi said reform and opening-up must be moved forward at a higher level and new advances must be made on all fronts in such zones. Martin Mueller, chairman of the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said he welcomed Xi’s policy statement about China’s opening-up. “We appreciate China’s commitment to multilateralism and its continued opening-up to more foreign trade and investment. China is now a very big factory for the whole world, and if it maintains this direction, the whole world will benefit,” he said. He added that the chamber welcomes every step taken toward opening-up and leveling the playing field for foreign businesses in China. “There were important improvements over the past year and we hope this can continue in coming years,” he said.