China's development brings six opportunities to the world

By Niu Li, translated by Meng Xue, Fu Yu

Over the years, China's economic growth has been the impetus and security of global economic development. A broad market, hundreds of millions of people traveling abroad and billions of US dollars worth overseas direct investments have provided good opportunities for the global market and investment environment, as well as generating a large number of jobs around the world. Chinese-made commodities with high-quality and lower prices have effectively helped restrain the world's inflation, and have made great contributions to improve the well-being of people around the world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed many times that China welcomes all countries to develop with China together to achieve the prosperity of the whole world. China is committed to promoting the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and has pushed the development of economic globalization towards the directions of a more open, inclusive, balanced and all-win result. China is a beneficiary of economic globalization. But more importantly, it's a contributor. China's development is an opportunity for the world.

The Bund in Shanghai [File Photo: VCG]

Firstly, China's stable economic growth is a key driving force and stabilizer of the world's economic recovery and development.

In 2017, China's total economic volume reached around 12.25 trillion U.S. dollars. Economic growth over the past year exceeded one trillion U.S. dollars, which is equal to the total economic output of Spain. According to the statistics from the World Bank, the average contribution rate of China's economic growth to the world has been over 30% during the 2013 to 2017 period, which surpassed the total contribution of the United States, the Eurozone and Japan. This not only shows the vitality and toughness of the Chinese economy, but also means China's stable economic growth is creating more opportunities to the world economic recovery.

Over the past two years, China has made gradual progress on advancing the supply-side structural reforms. This has helped adjust supply and demand, brought up prices in certain areas, and has improved the adaptability and creativity of the supply system, which provides strong support for the recovery of the global economy.

Secondly, China's broad markets create a large number of jobs.

Official data shows that by the end of 2017, the total population in China reached 1.39 billion. A population of nearly 1.4 billion means huge market demand. In 2017, China's imports in the commodity and service areas reached 2.3 trillion dollars, and non-financial overseas direct investment exceeded 120 billion dollars, which provides vast market opportunities, investment opportunities and development opportunities for all countries and regions. China's outbound tourist numbers in 2017 reached 14.3 billion, which has greatly stimulated consumption in each country.

Furthermore, a vigorous and resilient Chinese economy has created a huge number of jobs around the world. Taking the United States as an example, according to a report released by the US-China Business Council, in 2015, US businesses which export to China provided 1.8 million new jobs to the U.S. Two-way investment between China and the US created 2.6 million new jobs in the U.S.

Thirdly, the Chinese-made fine goods have reduced the cost of living for people around the world.

As China has constantly strengthened its manufacturing capacity, created more high quality commodities with lower prices, which have effectively restrained inflation in many countries and reduced the cost of living for people since the mid-1990s. In the United States, importing large quantities of fine commodities from China has helped maintain lower inflation. The move has also raised the real purchasing power of ordinary people, especially lower-and middle-income groups. A research by the US-China Business Council shows the total income of a typical American family was 56,500 dollars in 2015. It's estimated US imports from China help save the average family 850 dollars per year. The Oxford Research Institute estimates that the U.S. importing of low-price goods from China in 2015 reduced consumer prices around 1 to 1.5 percent.

Fourthly, China's development makes a great contribution to global poverty alleviation.

Since the launch of Reform and Opening Up 40 years ago, more than 700 million Chinese people from rural areas have been lifted out of poverty. That accounts for over 70% for the global total. In 2017, China's poverty rate dipped to 3.1%. China, while working to wipe out poverty within itself, has also been supporting other developing countries alleviate poverty.

From 1950 to 2016, although China has not always enjoyed a high level of development, it still unconditionally provided over 400 billion US dollars worth of aid to other countries through some 5,000 aid projects. China also helped train more than 260,000 professionals in developing countries. The achievements of China’s poverty alleviation have made the world's economy more forgiving. China has benefited from the global economic development, and is also contributing to it. China's development brings opportunities to the world.

Photo taken on May 22, 2017 shows freight train X8428, with a total travelling length of 9,900 kilometers and bound for Minsk of Belarus, departs from Shenzhen's Yantian Port, marking the opening of a new China-Europe freight train route starting from Shenzhen. [Photo: Xinhua]

Fifthly, new opportunities for development are being provided for countries along the "Belt and Road."

Not only does China follow the model of economic globalization, but also it is putting the "Belt and Road Initiative" into practice. The "Belt and Road Initiative" is one of the most popular international communication products in today's world. More than 100 countries and international organizations are involved in it. Over 80 of them have signed cooperation agreements with China. The Belt and Road Forum yielded over 270 results. A lot of exchange programs helped improve the situation for the development of member countries, creating more chances for regional cooperation.

The "Belt and Road Initiative" accelerated economic development in countries along its routes and has created a lot of job opportunities, so a lot of countries, especially those that are still developing, jumped on the China-led bandwagon. In 2017, Chinese companies made direct investments worth 14 billion US dollars in 59 countries along the Belt and Road. This accounts for 12% of total Chinese investment last year. These enterprises signed project deals worth 144 billion US dollars, representing 54% of all Chinese deals in foreign countries. In 2017, China's total trade volume with Belt and Road countries reached 7.3 trillion yuan, with 4.3 trillion yuan being exports and 3 trillion yuan from imports.

Sixthly, a more open China brings the world more opportunities for investment.

China is trying to open up a new phase of opening up and enter a new era of high quality development. China's doors will always remain open and they will only open wider. China will work to build a relaxed and orderly environment for investment, lower the threshold for foreign capital, construct high-standard free trade pilot zones, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and encourage fair competition to make the Chinese market more transparent and well managed.

It is predicted that in the next 5 years, China's foreign investment will reach 750 billion US dollars. 700 million people are expected to travel abroad. This will create bigger markets, generate more capital, more products and better opportunities for cooperation. China's future development will remain an opportunity for the world. And because China is shifting from speed to quality, it will become a stronger propeller for global economic growth.

Niu Li is Deputy Director of the Economic Forecast Department of the State Information Center of China.