China News Service, Boao, March 28 (Reporter Chen Su and Zhang Wenhui) The Boao Forum for Asia 2024 Annual Conference is being held here. As an important engine of the Asian economy, the direction of China's economy has attracted much attention. What is the growth potential of China's economy in the future? During this annual meeting, many guests analyzed China's economy.
In 2023, China's economy will achieve a GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 5.2% year-on-year, continuing to play its role as the world's economic engine.
Former French Prime Minister Raffarin said that China's performance last year was very impressive, and China's recovery has made an important contribution to the world economy.
Barnett, chief representative of the International Monetary Fund in China, said that China is the world's second largest economy and contributed one-third of global economic growth last year. China's strong growth is beneficial to all countries around the world.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) previously predicted that China's economic growth rate would be 4.6% in 2024, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the October 2023 forecast. The Chinese government work report also set a target of GDP growth of about 5% in 2024.
Looking forward to China's economy in 2024, Zhang Donggang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Renmin University of China, said that it is pragmatic and rational for China to set economic growth targets this year. Judging from the situation from January to February, China's main economic indicators performed well, reflecting the characteristics of China's economic resilience and great potential. According to the inherent laws and endogenous driving forces of China's economy, it is expected that China's economy will be able to achieve its goals this year.
Regarding China's economic growth potential for a longer period of time in the future, the guests at the meeting believed that consumption upgrades, innovation and transformation, green and low-carbon, wider opening up, etc. all contain huge opportunities. China should seize these opportunities to promote the economy to a higher level.
Jiang Ying, chairman of Deloitte China, said that China's market is very competitive, and its huge market size is its greatest confidence. The transformation of China's consumption structure and the government's consumption-promoting policies are constantly stimulating China's consumption potential.
Barnett said that the biggest factor driving China's economic growth last year was consumption, which contributed more than 80% to economic growth. At present, China's per capita consumption growth is lower than GDP, and the Chinese government should continue to drive consumption growth.
Park Zhishui, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, said that if China wants to further promote consumption growth, the key is to solve the problem of insufficient consumer confidence. It should strive to increase residents' income and strengthen the construction of social service systems such as education and medical care to better promote consumption. increase.
"The growth rate itself is not important, what is important is the transformation under the data." Dai Pu, co-president of the Roland Berger Global Management Committee, said that China is promoting economic transformation and upgrading, and China's new growth potential also exists in it.
Statistics show that China’s R&D investment exceeded 3.3 trillion yuan last year, an increase of 8.1% over the previous year. At the same time, this year's Chinese government work report proposed for the first time the development of "new productive forces", which also injected a boost into China's innovation and transformation.
Liu Qiao, dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University and professor of the Department of Finance, said that maintaining sustainable growth in China in the future will depend on the comprehensive improvement of productivity, that is, the formation of new quality through revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, profound changes in industry, and improving the allocation of production factors. Productivity, this is also China’s mid- to long-term development opportunity.
Jiang Ying said that China's smart, green and low-carbon development strategies will bring huge opportunities to market entities, create more jobs and increase residents' income, thereby positively affecting the entire social and economic development.
Barnett said that China's continued expansion of opening up also lies in China's growth potential. He suggested that as China expands its opening up, it should continue to create a fair and legal business environment, be market-oriented, better enhance social labor productivity, and promote healthy economic development. (over)