China News Service, Beijing, May 5th (Reporter Wang Enbo) In the face of downward pressure, the economy needs resilience; in the face of prevention and control pressure, cities need resilience; in the face of operational pressure, companies need resilience... The new crown epidemic has repeated In recent years, the word "resilience" is mentioned more and more frequently.
Guo Yi, managing director and global partner of Boston Consulting Group, said in a recent interview with a reporter from China News Agency that China's economy and urban resilience are highlighted under the epidemic, and "missing China and missing the world" is still valid.
According to his observations, foreign companies have no doubts about China.
In the first quarter of this year, China's economy grew by 4.8% year-on-year, and the overall start was stable.
However, due to factors such as the epidemic, many indicators declined significantly in March.
Guo Yi said that considering the interference of the Omicron variant on the overall economy, China's economic growth rate in the first quarter was in line with expectations, but it is undeniable that the downward pressure has increased.
For the Chinese economy, the most important thing in the second and third quarters is to boost market confidence as soon as possible and bring market expectations back on track, which will further test the resilience of the Chinese economy.
When it comes to the annual economic growth target, Guo Yi believes that not only depends on the numbers, but also on "the content of the numbers".
He expects that the expected target of around 5.5% is expected to be achieved under the background of increased official policy efforts.
But what should be paid more attention is whether this figure is realized through the adjustment of economic structure and through the value creation of the enterprise itself.
Whether China's "magnetism" to attract foreign investment has changed is another topic of concern under the epidemic.
"The fundamentals of China's economy have not changed, and the epidemic is just a small episode." Guo Yi emphasized that China is still one of the world's largest consumer markets and is undergoing consumption upgrades. This potential is impossible and cannot be missed by multinational companies. .
"If you miss China, you miss the world. This sentence has not changed now."
He further pointed out that no matter in the face of the 2008 global financial crisis or the current epidemic, the responsible attitude of the Chinese government has not changed.
China continues to signal to the outside world that it will expand its opening up, further establishing its image as a responsible major country - embracing the world no matter how difficult it is.
Therefore, the outside world's confidence in the Chinese market will not change.
And in these "unchanged", there are also some changes.
Guo Yi noted that China's business environment and economic ecology are self-correcting and optimizing as the situation changes.
"So according to my observation, foreign-funded enterprises have no doubts about China as long as the fundamentals have not changed."
The epidemic has tested the resilience of China's economy and the resilience of Chinese cities.
In Guo Yi's view, a resilient city first needs to have economic resilience, which is reflected in the supply chain, industrial chain, and industrial layout diversity.
Taking the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an example, he said that the export-oriented economy is the mainstay here, which has been hit hard by the epidemic, but the cities of the Greater Bay Area have a distinctive feature - the "dry goods" of the economy, that is, their own strength Very adequate.
"Even under such a big impact and influence, we are still ahead in the control of production factors, costs, and processes. This resilience is accumulated over the past 40 years of reform and opening up."
To deal with uncertainty, cities also need cultural resilience.
Guo Yi said that Chinese society has shown a cohesive force in the face of the epidemic, and people are facing the virus with the same hatred. This cultural resilience is a major feature and advantage of Chinese cities.
Under the epidemic test, although Chinese cities need to improve, they are generally qualified, reflecting the resilience of the city.
Market entities, such as enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, are the most basic units of economic operation and have been greatly affected by the epidemic.
How to forge toughness to deal with shocks has also become a major challenge to revive the economy.
Guo Yi said that from the central to the local level, the current series of support policies issued by governments at all levels to stabilize market players are not too strong, and they have achieved certain results, stabilizing economic fundamentals.
It is suggested to take two paths for relevant policies in the future: one is to be precise, and the "acupoints" must be targeted to improve efficiency; the other is to consider combining financial means in a more market-oriented way, such as insurance products, industrial funds, etc. Just keep the government busy."
Guo Yi also mentioned that digitalization is the most important growth point of the future economy. How to use the opportunity of pressing the "pause button" of the epidemic and find digital application scenarios to help enterprises transform after the "restart" is worth considering in the next stage.
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