Maintaining economic vitality with innovation

While checking my family's online spending records in the past year, I found that we spent a large amount on intelligent products. A wireless vacuum robot, smartwatch, electric rice cooker and a blood-pressure-monitoring machine - all of which can be controlled through apps.

Such easily operable electronic gadgets perform nearly every household function for my family. Even my 5-year-old daughter speaks to the digital virtual assistant the moment she wakes up in the morning: "Hi Xiao Ai, play me the song Five Little Ducks."

As a reporter, I tracked China's macroeconomic stories last year. Sometimes, the news may make people depressed when words like "slowdown", "financial risks" and "bad debt" appear in the headlines. However, at other times, frequent use of words such as "strong consumption", "technological innovation" and "rebalancing" could cheer readers up, portraying a bright outlook for the economy.

Ahead of this year's two sessions, China Daily asked more than 20 foreign media outlets around the world which areas would be of interest to them. One was "how China can maintain economic vitality in the current global economic environment?"

I have always tried to explain this key issue in my stories. Investors and academics are also keeping a close watch on signals from policymakers and the market.

Through macroeconomic policies, monetary authorities have tried to support growth by injecting funds to drive up investment and fiscal policy administrators have cut taxes to promote factory production.

I raised this same question with Zhu Min, one of China's most influential economists, in a recent interview. With years of experience working at the executive level of the International Monetary Fund and China's central bank, Zhu showed his confidence with a gentle smile.

"In China, innovation is becoming the key issue now," he said. "And 5G will fundamentally change the picture of innovation, to areas that have never been reached before."

Zhu also mentioned some other fields, including artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and the consumption upgrade, to be watched with a high degree of anticipation.

The Financial Times' chief economic commentator, Martin Wolf, wrote in his column that the Chinese economy is rebalancing, and that consumption is, at last, becoming the most important driver of demand.

"While the shifts are slow and the full adjustment to more reasonable levels could take until the middle of the next decade, we are seeing early signs of the necessary change in the structure of the Chinese economy..." he said. "That would, in turn, be good for China and for the rest of the world."

Of course, there is always a "dark" side to consider too, with worries and fear. More discussions on the Chinese economy - and on the measures needed to maintain the world's strongest growth engine - will take place during the two-week two sessions. Both pessimists and optimists will join in with their opinions.

What will the picture of economic development look like this year? What will the next macroeconomic story be? I think we just have to keep watching and never lose hope.