'Dual circulation' to boost growth (V)

A1: China is at the heart of HSBC's growth strategy. As the world's second-largest economy and largest goods trader, the continuous opening-up of its markets and its economic resilience amid the ongoing pandemic make China one of the most important markets to international businesses and remains a global supply chain hub.

A2: The new development pattern is not a closed domestic circulation, but an open domestic and international dual circulation. It takes the domestic market as the mainstay while letting domestic and foreign markets boost each other.

As a leading international bank with a global network covering 90 percent of the world's trade and capital flows, our ability to connect China with the global economy and bring international businesses and investors to China enables us to make a unique contribution to building the new development pattern.

A3: For international business, the commitments to ensuring stability on foreign trade, foreign investment and maintaining stable industrial and supply chains are most encouraging. It is a clear signal China won't stop opening up its domestic market, which has further boosted the confidence of global investors.

We believe China will continue to be among the top destinations for global investors and further engage with other economies through deeper trade and investment ties. These will create huge business opportunities for international financial institutions such as HSBC.

A5: In our view, China's new development stage is to build an open economy with higher standards and better quality.

Under the new development pattern, we expect the government to further unleash domestic demand through structural reforms to boost private investment, support indigenous innovation and lift productivity growth, while continuously opening up its economy.

In addition to bridging international business with China opportunities, we have also strived to support China's economic transformation and sustainable development.

A6: The faster-growing Asian markets, including China, remain central to HSBC's growth strategy. We are committed to continue investing in areas such as the Greater Bay Area, and supporting the country's financial reforms and economic development.

Thanks to its successful control of pandemic and strong policy support, China emerged as the only major economy to grow in 2020 and is going to remain pivotal to the global economy for the foreseeable future.

We expect the country to be the major engine for global economic growth in the coming years. We forecast a 2.3 percent GDP growth for the Chinese mainland in 2020, and we raised our 2021 growth forecast to 8.5 percent from 7.5 percent as China shows solid signs of recovery.

A7: The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) guidance lists fostering high-quality growth, enhancing innovation and improving domestic demand as top policy priorities for the next five years. It highlighted several key perspectives in China's financial reforms in the next five years, including expanding direct financing through capital market reforms and financial opening up, and deepening reforms in the banking sector to better support the real economy. China's further opening-up can go a long way to attract more foreign companies in the years ahead. We will continue to leverage that to help customers connect with opportunities in China.