Understanding China Conference 2020 (Guangzhou) kicked off in Guangzhou, Guangdong's provincial capital, on Friday afternoon, providing a platform for the world to better understand the country.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, read out a congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony.

Huang, also head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said Xi's letter demonstrates China's firm position in promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind and the country's distinct determination to strengthen international cooperation and continuously expand opening-up.

In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony via video link from Beijing, Huang said China's gate will only open wider in the years to come and China's modernization and development benefits not only China itself, but also the world.

He urged participants attending the conference to contribute their wisdom and strength through in-depth dialogues, exchanges and discussions during the three-day event.

Li Xi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Party chief of Guangdong province, said Guangdong, window of the country's reform and opening-up, welcomes more foreign investors to settle down in the prosperous province which has already recorded a GDP of more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion) last year.

He said Guangdong market is a shared market and a market for the entire world.

And Guangdong encourages overseas investors to share the fruits of China's reform and opening-up with the prosperous province, he added.

More than 600 former State leaders, senior business executives, strategists, scholars and entrepreneurs from more than 20 nations and regions attended the three-day event online and offline this year.

Meanwhile, a series of parallel seminars, special dialogues and field visits to local companies, innovation centers and communities are also organized to encourage Sino-foreign participants to sense the progress China has achieved since the country opens to the outside world in late 1970s.

It is the second time Guangzhou, known as a millennium commercial capital, to host the event. The southern metropolis organized the previous event in 2019 after Beijing held the first three events in 2013, 2015 and 2018, respectively.

The event has become one of the most prestigious and influential platforms for the world to understand China's domestic and international strategies.