China’s Central Economic Work Conference held from Wednesday to Friday has set the course for China’s economic development in 2021, heralding a continuous growth which will help the recovery of the pandemic-laden world economy, overseas experts have said.
Recognizing the country’s hard-won economic achievements this year amid an effective control of COVID-19, the meeting outlined specific tasks for 2021, saying that China will work to ensure that the Chinese economy runs in an appropriate range with the implementation of targeted and effective macro policies.
Noting that China is expected to become the only major economy to register positive growth this year, Fu Xiaolan, founding director of the Technology and Management Centre for Development of the University of Oxford, said that it is of decisive significance for the sustainable development of the Chinese economy.
The key tasks outlined by the meeting, such as promoting high-quality development, boosting technology innovations, consolidating the security and stability of industrial and supply chains, and strengthening the domestic market’s support for economic growth, all serve a central goal and support each other, which is correct and scientific, said Fu.
China’s rapid economic growth helps build its resilience in the face of the pandemic, said William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the US publication Executive Intelligence Review, adding that when taking preventive measures to avoid the recurrence of the pandemic, China is seizing the opportunity to bring the economy back on the track of sustainable growth.
Jones said he believed that accelerating technological innovations and developing stable industrial supply chains are the top priorities of China’s economic development in the future, because the key to economic growth is technological progress, and the development of new technologies can ensure a sustainable economic growth.
Ke Ding, a researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies of the Japan External Trade Organization, said the conference put forward the strategies of expanding domestic demand, focusing on the demand-side management, optimizing the income distribution structure and expanding the middle-income group, all of which are crucial for China to form a strong domestic market and achieve high-quality development.
Mao Xuxin, principal economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a London-based economic think tank, said that while maintaining a reasonable and appropriate monetary policy and controlling financial and debt risks, China has adopted proactive and targeted fiscal policies which will help promote scientific and technological innovations and optimize income distribution and economic structures.
“Such relatively balanced monetary and fiscal policies will not only help expand domestic demand and maintain safe and sound economic development, but will also provide strong support for an independent and controllable supply chain and high-level opening-up,” Mao said.
Johannes Pflug, a city official of Duisburg, Germany who is responsible for Chinese affairs, said he concludes from the Central Economic Work Conference that China’s economy is expected to continue to play a leading role in driving global economic recovery in 2021.
File photo:VCG
