On January 10th, 2024, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Chinese Embassy in India Ma Jia published an article entitled “China aims for a quality boost as its economy recovers” in The Mint. The full text is as follows:
The year 2023 marked the beginning of China’s push to promote its modernization. It was also a year of economic recovery following three years of covid prevention and control. Towards the end of the year, we saw many discussions about China’s economy. The annual Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing on 11 and 12 December reviewed China’s economic situation and decided 2024’s priorities. It concluded that the fundamental trend of China’s economic recovery and long-term positive outlook has not changed.
China’s economic growth momentum remains strong: In the first three quarters of last year, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached more than RMB 91.3 trillion (about $12.7 trillion), growing 5.2% year-on-year, which is among the highest for fast-growing economies. China will contribute a third of global economic growth in 2023. The International Monetary Fund raised China’s growth estimate to 5.4% for 2023. JPMorgan Chase, UBS and Deutsche Bank have also increased their estimates for the Chinese economy to above 5.4%. During the recent New Year holiday, 135 million domestic trips were made, up 9.4% on a comparable basis from the same period in 2019; and domestic tourism generated 5.6% higher revenue than it did in the same period of 2019. Market institutions widely expect that China can achieve its annual growth target of around 5%, which was set at the beginning of last year.
A shift from high-speed to high-quality growth has greatly improved the efficiency of development in China: In 2023, China’s total automobile exports will rank first in the world. In the first three quarters, combined exports of new-energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products equalled more than $110 billion, up more than 40% year-on-year. The total installed capacity of renewable energy has historically exceeded coal power. Key components of clean energy equipment such as photovoltaic modules and wind turbines account for 70% of the global share. The green industry’s development has leapfrogged. China’s self-developed large passenger aircraft, C919, is set to go into commercial operation and enter a new phase of development. Delivery of the first domestically-built large cruise ship made China the fifth largest cruise ship builder in the world. All these indicate that China’s economy has been transitioning from high-speed growth to high-quality development.
China remains a promising land for global investment: China strives to foster a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment for global enterprises, and create as well as share development dividends with the world.
Since 2017, China has revised the negative list on foreign investment access for five consecutive years, making it shorter and shorter. Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the removal of all restrictive measures on foreign investment in manufacturing at the third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum in October. Actually-utilized foreign direct investment (FDI) in China increased by 5% to reach an annual record of $189.1 billion in 2022. In the first three quarters of 2023, there have been year-on-year increases in investment from France (121.7%), the UK (116.9%), Canada (109.2%), Switzerland (76.9%) and the Netherlands (32.6%), respectively. Data shows that foreign companies have not slowed down their deployment in China, but continue to add new investments and launch new projects, casting a vote of confidence in the Chinese economy.
China’s door to the outside world will only open wider: China is applying high standards to its implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), while it works to align with the high-standard economic and trade rules of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and Digital Economy Partnership Agreement to advance the process of acceding to these two agreements and expand a globally-oriented network of high-standard free-trade areas. Since the establishment of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone 10 years ago, China has set up 22 pilot FTZs.
Also, in 2023, BRI cooperation ushered in its second “Golden Decade”. The sixth China International Import Expo and the first China International Supply Chain Expo were successfully held. China is taking more proactive and promising actions to build a broader agenda of opening up its economy across more areas and in greater depth.
In 2024, China aims to apply its new development philosophy on all fronts, speed up the building of a new development paradigm, promote high-quality development, and continue to harness its strong innovation capacity, huge market, sound infrastructure, complete industrial chains and high-quality human resources. China will expand high-level opening up, further ease market access, and share with the rest of the world new opportunities created by Chinese modernization.
China is a source of certainty and positive energy in a world battling economic uncertainties. It complements the outstanding performance of India’s economy, creating an eye-catching scenario in the East. China and India can give countries around the world new opportunities and the world economy a stronger impetus by cooperating with each other while maintaining rapid economic growth.
