GENEVA: As China’s National Day holiday kicks off on Friday, China watchers forecast a strong rebound in economic activity, with one expert at Switzerland’s Institute for Management Development (IMD) saying that the country’s new digital technologies and prosperity model are going to shape the world.
“The expectations are much more positive this year than they were for the last one, and last year we really had record numbers in terms of online purchases. This year is going to be even better,” Arturo Bris, professor of finance at the IMD, told Xinhua in an interview. “People have been saving more; there is more money to consume. Because of these positive expectations we know that when there is optimism, people consume more,” said Bris, who is also the director of the IMD’s World Competitiveness Center.
The Golden Week holiday is closely watched as a barometer of the country’s economy, and usually sees surging tourism revenues, booming performances in retail and catering sales, and strong consumption in the culture and entertainment sectors. It comes as China’s retail sales of consumer goods are expected to hit 44 trillion yuan (about 6.8 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2021, an official with the Ministry of Commerce has said over the weekend.
The IMD is one of the world’s leading business schools. Its Digital Competitiveness Rankings published on Wednesday also showed that China is leading the world on its proportion of scientific and technical employees, who represent 11 percent of the country’s total employment, almost double that of the United States (6 percent).
“China is obviously an impressive performer in digital competitiveness. Certainly, it’s catching up with the most digitally advanced economies and I’m thinking about Switzerland but also Denmark or the United States,” the IMD professor said.
“There are two digital powers in the world at the same level: the United States and China. China is dominant in artificial intelligence, in many of the new technologies that are going to shape the world. The potential is going to be immense. I have no doubt that in the next years China is going to become one of the top most competitive countries in the digital space.” – Agencies
