Key takeaways from China Development Forum 2024

BEIJING - Themed "The Continuous Development of China," the China Development Forum (CDF) 2024 concluded on Monday, with senior Chinese officials, leaders of multinationals and representatives from international organizations, offering insights into China's development and its global impact.

Following are the key takeaways from their speeches and viewpoints shared during the two-day conference.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO GLOBAL GROWTH

"In the medium-term, China will continue to be a key contributor to global economic growth," said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, at the forum.

Georgieva expressed optimism regarding China's future growth prospects, attributing it to a comprehensive package of pro-market reforms. "This additional growth would amount to a 20 percent expansion of the real economy over the next 15 years -- in today's terms, that is like adding $3.5 trillion to the Chinese economy," she said.

Masatsugu Asakawa, president of the Asian Development Bank, echoed her views, noting that he is encouraged by the progress China has made in its development.

"Looking ahead for China we see a stable growth trajectory in 2024, within the target range announced by the government," he said.

In its government work report, China unveiled a target of around 5 percent expansion for the economy this year, a goal described by Jack Chan, chairman of EY China and regional managing partner of EY Greater China, as both pragmatic and inspiring.

"Despite the numerous challenges in global growth, China's solid economic fundamentals for long-term growth remained unchanged as shown in its 2023 performance and we maintain confidence in the country's ongoing high-quality development," Chan said in an interview with Xinhua.

NEW GROWTH DRIVERS

Making strides in new quality productive forces, featuring high-tech, high efficiency and high quality, is high on China's agenda this year, and Chinese authorities have pledged a host of measures to bolster new growth drivers at the CDF.

China will boost industrial innovation through technological innovation, speed up upgrading of traditional industries, and foster emerging industries, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the forum.

New quality productive forces reflect China's requirements for structural transformation and high-quality development, with broad prospects, said Zhang Qingjie, head of digital enablement and head of AI at KPMG China.

The advancement of new quality productive forces in China means strategic opportunities in upgrading industrial and supply chains, fostering emerging and future industries, and driving innovative development of the digital economy, he added.

Zheng said that China will strive to integrate digital technologies into the real economy sector and integrate advanced manufacturing with the modern service industry while fostering new growth engines in fields like biomanufacturing, commercial spaceflight, new materials and low-altitude economy.

As China promotes new industrialization and accelerates the building of a modern industrial system, strong development momentum will be unleashed, creating a broad space for deepening international industrial and supply chain cooperation, said Jin Zhuanglong, minister of Industry and Information Technology.

The country will continue to deepen international cooperation and work with enterprises across the world to promote industrial and supply chain upgrades, he added.

According to Jin, Chinese and foreign companies can deepen cooperation on science and technology innovation, on the digitalization and green development of the manufacturing sector, as well as among small and medium-sized enterprises.

EXPANDING OPENING UP

Speakers at the CDF have repeatedly highlighted China's commitment to further opening up, affirming the country's willingness to offer more opportunities for foreign investors to engage in deeper operations here.

Zheng said that the country will continue efforts to optimize its business environment, pursue higher-standard opening up, strengthen international sci-tech cooperation, and accelerate the formulation of the 2024 negative list for foreign investment.

As China continues to lift market access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, it will also promote the opening up of sectors such as telecommunications and medical care to create more trade and investment opportunities for foreign investors, Vice-Commerce Minister Guo Tingting, said at the forum.

The country will also launch a campaign to boost investment, continue to optimize services, and fully ensure national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises, Guo added.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that some 7,160 new foreign-invested firms were set up across China during the first two months of this year, up 34.9 percent year-on-year, the highest increase in nearly five years.

Speaking at the forum, Kim Fausing, president and CEO of Danfoss, a leading Danish energy efficiency solution company, said that China's reaffirmed pledge to further opening up and improvements to the business environment, especially the protection of intellectual property rights, gives them strong confidence to continue investing in the country.