China to expand advanced manufacturing, domestic market: official

China's top economic planner has pledged to strengthen the advanced manufacturing sector and foster stronger domestic market amid efforts to stabilize economic growth.He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China will narrow the gap in major technical equipment capabilities to tap into the huge domestic market potentials in this sector.Efforts will also be made to accelerate upgrading of traditional industries to make them more digitalized, connected and smart, which will also unleash gigantic domestic market potentials, he said.China will also speed up development of world-class technological innovation centers to foster new growth drivers, and expand investment in infrastructure related to key areas such as poverty relief, agriculture and energy to stimulate demand, he said.His remarks came as a key economic meeting of China's leadership put high-quality manufacturing development high on the work agenda of 2019.To shore up the real economy especially advanced manufacturing, policies will focus on enhancing fair competition and vitality of market entities while lowering corporate costs."One of the primary tasks is to offer the private sector substantial support," he said, referring to measures including addressing financing difficulties.China will push for significant improvement in business environment across the nation by improving its environment rating scheme with Chinese characteristics more rapidly, he said.The country will improve foreign investment environment across the board and clear up restrictive regulations on foreign investment that go beyond the official negative list, according to He.Source: Invest in China

Global investors optimistic about Chinese economy in 2019

Standard Chartered stressed that undeniably China will be faced with stronger downward pressure in 2019, but observers should not be pessimistic about this.First, the scale and dividends of China’s economic restructuring should not be underestimated, the bank said, explaining that new economy, accounting for 15.7 percent of the country’s GDP, is to be a beneficiary of the restructuring.Besides new economy, retail trade, real estate, health care, commercial insurance, as well as other industries will all grow alongside consumption upgrades, and furthermore industrial upgrades will contribute to the growth of computer and electronic products, computer programming, and information technology.The Chinese economy will embrace a 30 percent or above increase if the efficacy of the abovementioned sectors is elevated to the level of developed economies, the bank added.In addition, the flexibility of the policies for macro-regulation should not be underestimated. Standard Chartered believes that China will be able to achieve growth of 6.4 percent, a figure higher than expectation.Aberdeen Standard Investments, a London-listed global asset manager, said it will invest more in the A-share market considering the change of China’s economic growth mode, relatively balanced risks, and the price advantage brought by the long-term investment of some excellent enterprises, though the prices of A-shares experienced a slide this year.Limited impact will be exerted on the Chinese economy because the growth mode has changed and the proportion of exports within GDP has continued to drop, Nicholas Yeo, head of China Equities at Aberdeen, was quoted as saying.The Chinese government has recently rolled out a series of reform measures and the policies will be continued before the economic fundamentals are obviously improved, according to Goldman Sachs. It believes that a drastic drop of the Chinese economy will not occur. Source: en.people.cn

Reform and opening-up to boost global economic growth, say experts

China's reform and opening-up will not only benefit the country and its people, but help contribute new growth momentum and facilitate changes to the global economy in many aspects, said officials and business leaders from home and abroad.The nation's new measures to support multilateralism and deep involvement in partner countries will help facilitate both goods and service trade activities, as well as infrastructure development and enable stronger connections, said Han Yong, commercial counselor at the department of outward investment and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce.China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the country's manufacturer of locomotives and rolling stock, plans to deploy more resources on operations including localized manufacturing, procurement, employment, services and management to drive growth in global markets, in particular those involved in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.These moves will help the group to better integrate with local economy and coordinate its global resources after the company built a number of manufacturing bases in Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, India, Turkey and other countries over the past five years, said Lou Qiliang, vice-president of Beijing-headquartered CRRC.The group's overseas assets jumped from 3 billion yuan ($432 million) in 2013 to 34 billion yuan in 2017. It currently employs 57,000 people across its overseas operations, compared with 509 in 2013.China, now the second largest economy in the world, has helped power the world economy not only with the BRI, but with foreign aid into countries in need. Many developing countries are benefiting from Chinese loans and grants, both bilateral and multilateral, said Ali Ahmed, CEO of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute."The rise of China has, therefore, been a boon not only to China herself but also to the rest of the world, especially to the relatively poorer countries."He said the Chinese way of development, with no doubt, deserves admiration.China's contribution to global development has been unique, said Ahmed, who served in the Bangladeshi government for decades before joining the BFTI in 2015.Paradoxically, many of the present-day leaders in the Western world, once champions of free trade and globalization, are now working against it, he said."They have been advocating free trade and globalization so long as their goods and services could enter duty-free (zones) without much of competition from poorer economies," the expert said. "But when they started facing competition from their erstwhile importers of finished goods and services ... they are raising all kinds of barriers against them."Amid allegations that China only exports but does not import, China International Import Expo held in Shanghai this year is "a fitting reply," Ahmed said. "It ... witnessed a clear Chinese invitation to the others to export to their country. It has been a marvelous economic diplomacy on the part of China."The benefits China's reform and opening-up has brought to South Asia, especially to Bangladesh, have been and are to be immense, he said.A pointer to that is the opening-up of Chinese market for duty-free and quota-free entry of Bangladeshi goods, Ahmed added. Bangladesh, the largest least developed country (LDC) in terms of the size of its population and economy, enjoys such market access under a decision of the World Trade Organization."They will be on a reciprocal basis," Ahmed said. "At the moment, and for some more years to come, the Chinese policy of opening up her market to the LDCs will continue to be of great help to them. Bangladesh, as an LDC, will reap same benefits."China and Bangladesh have already opened discussions to arrive at a free-trade agreement, under which Bangladesh would continue to export its duty- and quota-free goods to China, according to information from the Ministry of Commerce."China's proposal to explore third-party market cooperation could bring benefits to both Western nations and developing countries in many parts of the world, without causing a clash of interests," said Chu Shijia, director-general at the ministry's comprehensive department.Source: China Daily

GDP growth expected to remain stable

Structural reforms to support economy despite headwinds, report saysChina’s GDP growth next year is expected to be stable at 6.3 percent, despite headwinds, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and economists suggested that the country should continue to press ahead with structural reforms to boost growth.Despite the global economic downturn and Sino-US trade conflicts, China’s GDP growth rate may reach 6.6 percent this year — meaning it would achieve its preset growth target of around 6.5 percent — and then in 2019 ease to 6.3 percent, according to the academy’s latest forecast, released in a blue book report on the economy on Monday.China is not expected to encounter any economic hard-landing, economists said at a forum organized by the top think tank on Monday.“The active promotion of a new round of reforms and opening-up as well as the Belt and Road Initiative will further stimulate internal and external demand next year,” said Lou Feng, the co-author of the report and a researcher at the Institute of Quantitative & Technological Economics at the academy. “China’s low unemployment rate and consumer inflation level will also play a key role in guaranteeing social stabilization and residential income growth.”The academy’s report, usually published at year’s end to forecast the economy’s performance in the following year, said China’s fixed-asset investment will remain stable next year as China will continue to use investments to prevent an economic downturn.Policymakers at the Central Economic Work Conference, which concluded on Friday, said the country will strengthen use of fiscal policy and increase infrastructure investments to shore up the economy. It will also promote urbanization and development of regional economic clusters, such as the Yangtze River Delta region, to create more demand for investment.Consumption also is expected to remain stable, the academy’s report said. The country has devised a series of policies such as personal tax cuts to encourage consumption, which will work to help increase retail sales, it said.Despite the uncertainties caused by the Sino-US trade disputes, China may continue to see exports increase as a result of its wider economic opening-up and deepening economic cooperation with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, the report said.Lou said China’s retail sales could reach 40 trillion yuan ($5.8 trillion) this year and grow to 43.3 trillion yuan next year. Consumption is set to contribute 78.2 percent of GDP growth this year, the highest level since 2001, he said.“China’s economy will not suffer from a hard landing next year,” said Yang Yiyong, director of the Social Development Research Institution, part of the National Reform and Development Commission, a top economic regulatory body.Economists said that to ensure stable growth against internal and external headwinds, China needs to continue its structural reforms.“China should stick to reforms to boost growth,” said Han Wenxiu, deputy head of the office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, at a forum on Saturday.China should deepen reforms in State assets, finance, land, market entry and market regulation to promote competition and improve the systemic environment through creation of a level playing field, he said.The State Administration of Taxation said on Monday that it will “strictly implement tax cut policies” and resolutely prevent “excessive collection of taxes” to foster a law-based and equitable taxation environment.Source: China Daily

The Top 100 for China's National Industrial Parks

On December 17, the "White Paper on the Top 100 for the Development Competitiveness of China's National Industrial Parks" was released. The research on the Top 100 list is mainly for 375 State-level Economic and Technological Development Zones and National High-tech Industrial Development Zones. Comprehensive evaluation of five aspects: innovation capability, business environment, ecological livability and location transportation.The National High-tech Zone has an absolute advantage in the listed parks, with a total of 66 National High-tech Zones on the list, including Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Industrial Development Zone ranked first. Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Industrial Development Zone is located in Shanghai, the economic center of the country. Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Zone makes full use of Shanghai's excellent industrial base and development conditions, accelerates the gathering of innovative resources such as talents, capital and technology, vigorously cultivates high-tech enterprises, and actively develops high-tech industries. The park is divided into three leading industries of integrated circuits, software and biomedicine, focusing on building a public service platform, building and improving the industrial innovation chain, and focus on the major functional areas such as technological innovation zones, high-tech industrial zones, research and education zones, and living zones. At present, the integrated circuit industry of Zhangjiang Core Park has occupied half of the domestic market share and has become one of the largest software industry bases in the country, forming the most intensive biomedical R&D and innovation base in China. Through policy support, resource agglomeration, especially the construction of public service platforms, the innovation and entrepreneurial environment of Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Zone has been continuously optimized.The second is Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Park.Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Park was established in September 1996. It is one of the first Pilot Parks for the development strategy of “Building a World-class Technology Park” by the Ministry of Science and Technology. With the help of Shenzhen's innovative environmental advantages, the park focuses on the development of four major industries: electronic information, bioengineering, new materials, and opto-mechatronics.The third is Hangzhou High-tech Industrial Development ZoneHangzhou High-tech Industrial Development Zone is located in Binjiang District, Hangzhou City, Hangzhou. As a national high-tech development zone, Hangzhou High-tech Zone enjoys special national preferential policies. The Park focus on the development of communication equipment manufacturing, software industry, integrated circuit design and manufacturing, digital TV industry, animation and online game industry.

How China opened its doors to world

Plenum paved way for landmark reform initiativeForty years ago this week, the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing's Haidian district was the venue for one of the 20th century's landmark events.The Third Plenum of the 11th Communist Party of China Central Committee, held from Dec 18 to 22, 1978, saw the launch of China's reform and opening-up policy.This momentous initiative not only transformed the country－turning it from a largely agrarian and poor society to the second-largest economy in the world－but also the world itself, shifting its center of gravity eastward.Martin Jacques, the British academic and author of When China Rules the World, believes 1978 was the year in which the world we are living in today began to take shape."The reforms (of former leader Deng Xiaoping) not only transformed the whole of the Chinese economy, they transformed China's vision of the world and the world itself. It is an absolutely revolutionary shift. It was a momentous event, absolutely incredible. In my view, it marked the beginning of the 21st century," he said.The new policy began with reform of the economy's agricultural base.The 1980s saw Special Economic Zones set up in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and other coastal areas, which became hives of manufacturing and the platform for China to become the workshop of the world.The policy welcomed foreign investment, with multinational companies from around the world launching operations in China through joint ventures.The economy has grown, at mostly double-digit rates, from $306.17 billion in 1980 to $12.25 trillion last year－a 40-fold increase, which has taken 800 million people out of poverty.Since the financial crisis of 2008, China has contributed a quarter of global growth.However, Kerry Brown, director of the Lau Institute at King's College London, said it would be wrong to see 1978 as a complete break from what had gone before.He views the nation's development as a continuation of the progress made in the three decades after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949."The journey started in 1949. There was a modernization going on that was complicated and it was all part of a learning experience. Without what happened before 1978, you wouldn't have had the opportunities to do what occurred afterward," he said.The reform and opening-up initiative has shaped many people's lives.Jing Ulrich, managing director and vice-chairman for Asia Pacific at JPMorgan Chase, who is one of China's most prominent businesswomen, was 11 when it was launched."I remember as a child witnessing the economic reforms that placed China on a path of extraordinary growth and prosperity," she said."Every year I saw how the introduction of market principles allowed China to open up to foreign investment, and gave people the opportunity to set up businesses and build something out of nothing. The transformation created much-needed jobs, drastically raised living standards, and gave people the chance to build the lives they always wanted. It was the beginning of the Chinese dream," Ulrich said.Now 51, Ulrich has been ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful global businesswomen. She was also one of the first students from the Chinese mainland to study at Harvard University at the United States."When I was studying in America, people didn't really know much about China. But over time, as the reforms continued to ripple through the market and focused global attention on 'the rising dragon', I knew it was my calling to interpret the 'China story' for the world," she said.One of the contentious issues with reform and opening-up is whether it receives the attention and recognition in the West that it deserves, if only by one criteria alone－for delivering so many people out of poverty.Former United Kingdom prime minister Tony Blair acknowledged this in an interview with China Daily earlier this year."It is a really significant event. If you were a Western student, you would study lots of things about the politics of the late 20th century. You would study the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid," he said."You wouldn't probably study, in the same way, the opening-up of China, and yet it signaled that China was going on a new path of engagement with the world with the opening-up of its economy. The results have been staggering."Brown, although recognizing the significance of 1949, said the world we live in now derives from 1978."In terms of global leadership, nothing comes close to it in terms of its impact on one-fifth of humanity. This was a truly great event, and so many issues we are dealing with now, such as the shape of the global economy, all date back to that year."Jacques, the British academic, also believes there is insufficient acknowledgement of 1978 in the West."You barely see anything (about this) in the Western media. That tells you virtually everything you need to know about the inability to comprehend one of the greatest trends in the world. The West is now blind and does not have a sense of the future anymore. It has lost its compass and has moved into a siege mentality," he said.For Ulrich at JPMorgan Chase, the impact of reform and opening-up will continue to shape the world, with its ability to invest in other nations through moves such as the Belt and Road Initiative, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013."China's economic reforms have paved the way for the nation to create some of the world's leading companies in e-commerce, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, financial services and biotechnology," she said."With China already achieving its goal of shifting from an export-oriented economy to a consumption-driven one, the nation's leaders are now on a journey to build and invest in its neighbors through the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative."State direction has played a significant role in the success of the Chinese economy, from establishing SEZs in the 1980s to current initiatives such as setting up Free Trade Zones.Rana Mitter, director of the University of Oxford China Centre, said the reform measures developed a momentum of their own in the 1980s."You had the de-collectivization of the countryside. With the setting up of Special Economic Zones, Guangdong took off like a rocket," he said.Deng's Southern Tour in 1992, when he visited the Shenzhen SEZ, and famously said "to get rich is glorious", was also another important stepping stone, Mitter said."This is when you have the real beginning of the Made in China export-oriented economy," he said.William Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University, said part of the reform dynamism was the return of family businesses, particularly after 1990."They had been the dynamo of China's economy up to the 1920s and (also drove) other East Asian economies," he said.Ulrich believes one of the most important ingredients in China's success has been the way it has managed to rapidly integrate itself with the global economy."China's unprecedented economic growth over the past 40 years is a testament to the importance of an economy embracing global business and international markets. Over the past half century, China has transitioned from a closed, agriculture-based economy to one that is vibrant and deeply connected across virtually every sector in the world," she said.Mitter, author of China's War With Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival, said part of the reform initiative's success was its timing."It coincided with the end of the Cold War, and the US was then buying a lot of stuff, although this was largely debt-fueled, while China was producing it. It created what the historian Niall Ferguson called 'Chinamerica', referring to the two economies becoming complementary."Kirby, the author of Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth, said the reform initiative has not been without its problems, particularly widening the inequality between the rich coastal regions and poorer inland ones."Reform led to the extraordinary development of the south and east, but some other less-developed regions got left behind," he said.He believes this has particularly affected the farming community, which has not benefited in the same way as the urban population."It is the farmers who have not enjoyed these benefits. If you look at France, the UK, Germany and the US, the farmers have not been impoverished. For China to be an enduring rich country, it needs to have a prosperous agricultural sector as well."As the anniversary of the reform initiative is marked, China, which became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001, is continuing to open up its economy.Mitter said: "People are looking to see what role China will play as a key actor on the international stage in the next phase of its development. That question remains to be resolved, and the way that China addresses it will do a great deal to decide what China's reputation, reach and power is."Ulrich also believes further opening-up will be important to the country's future success."There is still room for China to accelerate market liberalization. In addition, it can further open its financial system to foreign competition, encourage foreign direct investment and continue to lead in global trade. These reforms will take time, but we do see China making meaningful progress on every front," she said.As people look back to 1978, Brown, also author of China's World: What Does China Want?, said it is important to remember and reflect on Deng's leadership."Through his reforms China has emerged as a country that once again is a force in the world. It is innovating and creating its own technologies. It is becoming what the US was in the 20th century, but with Chinese characteristics," he said.Source: China Daily