BEIJING: China was at an important juncture to develop new drivers of growth which would become a motor for the economic development of both its own and other countries, said Martin Raiser World Bank country director for China.
The latest census released in May showed that the population growth in China had been declining and so would the country’s actual population and labor force over the course of the next decade, which meant China could no longer rely on intensive labor to power its economic growth, Raiser made these comments as he answered questions related to China’s economy asked by readers around the world.
China Daily has been conducting an in-depth survey since February with our global media partners on what readers want to know about China.
According to the survey, China’s fight against COVID-19 is one of the most-watched topics as readers and media have been interested in how China has quickly contained the pandemic and launched nationwide vaccinations.
China needed to find new drivers of growth which was essentially meant by quality growth, and to achieve this, Raiser believed it was significant to invest more in human capital and innovation and to increase productivity, making sure that even the smaller enterprises could benefit from new technologies and hire more productive people.
Raiser said that he already found elements of the shift in the divers of growth in the 14th Five-Year Plan. For instance, there was emphasis on improving social spending on education and health services in rural areas and on increasing the share of domestic consumption in GDP.
Such shift toward a greater reliance on athe domestic market would provide a potential opportunity for additional growth in China and it was consistent with the need to develop new drivers of growth and service economy, he said.
That China will place more reliance on the market at home than abroad as an engine of growth in the dual circulation doesn’t mean the country to turn inward, and it can open up even more to allow other countries to benefit from China’s domestic market, Raiser said.
“I think the domestic market of China can become not only a motor for its own economic development, but can also become a motor for other countries’ economic development,” he said.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
