Brief Introduction to World Openness Report
The series World Openness Report as flagship publication of the Hongqiao International Economic Forum (HQF), has been released globally during the China International Import Expo since 2021.
The World Openness Report focuses on global openness trends, explores general rules on national cross-border opening-up, summarizes the best practices on opening up, builds global consensus for openness, facilitates worldwide openness, and promotes the building of an open global economy and a community with a shared future for humanity.
To accurately describe the level of cross-border openness, the World Openness Report developed the World Openness Index as its core innovation and highlight. Compared to indices on the same or similar topics globally, the World Openness Index is highly innovative in its idea, concepts, indicators, and measurements. This index gauges the cross-border economic openness of economies, along with the accompanying cross-border social and cultural two-way opening-up policies and performance. It comprises 29 quantifiable indicators, with weights determined through a survey of 41 international economists. Based on a transnational panel database containing 44,892 observations, the index measures the openness of 129 economies since 2008.
The main contributors to the World Openness Report are the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Research Center for HQF (RCHQF).
--IWEP. It is primarily engaged in policy-oriented and theoretical research on global, strategic, and comprehensive issues in the field of international economics and politics. It aspires to become a strategic think tank with distinctive features, rich in innovation, and a leader in the field, serving China. The Institute has been one of the most influential think tanks globally concerning China's economic policy, international economic policy, and Chinese foreign policy. (See the series Global Go To Think Tank Index Report edited by McGann, J. G., https://repository.upenn.edu/think_tanks/). It has been the chief Chinese think tank coordinator for the G20 Think Tank Summit (T20) since 2016, one of 25 high-level think tank pilot units identified by the Chinese government since late 2015, the supporting agency of the National Institute for Global Strategy (NIGS) affiliated to the CASS since May 2020, and a think tank partner of the HQF since 2022.
--RCHQF. It provides intellectual support services for the HQF, sets the themes and topics for the forum, carries out strategic and forward-looking policy research and academic exchanges related to the theme topics of the HQF, organizes the release of the HQF annual report as well as other relevant research results, manages the specific affairs of the forum’s advisory committee and expert database, and builds a network of domestic and international think tank collaborations, along with handling other matters related to the forum.
Since its first release in November 2021, the World Openness Report has generated significant responses both domestically and internationally.
-- President Xi Jinping highlighted in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 4th China International Import Expo: "Studies show a steady decline of the World Openness Index over the past decade and a weakening of global consensus on opening up. " (People's Daily, November 5, 2021, p. 2).
-- World Openness Report 2023 has been recognized as one of Major Achievements of the CASS Innovation Project of the Year 2023. A total of twenty-two achievements has been awarded this title on April 1, 2024. For more details, see https://www.cssn.cn/skwxsdt/hyrl/hyzx/202404/t20240407_5745089.shtml.
-- World Openness Report 2021 was included in the list of Major Achievements of the CASS Innovation Project of the Year 2021. There are twenty-six achievements in this list which was released on January 12, 2023. For more details, see http://www.cssn.cn/yw/202301/t20230115_5582846.shtml.
-- World Openness Report 2022 was shortlisted for Outstanding Think Tank Achievements with Special Prize of the Year 2022, which was released by the Center for Chinese Think Tank Research and Evaluation affiliated to Nanjing University on December 25, 2022. The list was selected from 603 achievements and includes 225 award-winning items, with 63 receiving the special prize. For details, see: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/iF_Vv48K2kXAQisNlxkSoQ.
-- World Openness Report 2022 was selected as one of the Top 11 Good Books of the Year 2022 and ranked 2nd in the Ten Bestselling New Books of the Year 2022 by the China Social Sciences Press. For more details, see https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OmpJ0XdVHz9BcDPT34RYYQ, and
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5IiYAlfcHr5lLczcNuNSAg.
The Chinese version of World Openness Report were published by the China Social Sciences Press, and the English version were published by the Paths International Ltd., etc.