Bright prospects for Chinese economy

Against the backdrop of the turbulent geopolitical landscape and a sluggish global economy, China’s economy, instead of showing signs of faltering recovery or deflation, has achieved high-quality growth.In 2023, China’s GDP grew by 5.2% year-on-year, with the corresponding economic growth in volume exceeding RMB 6tn yuan. The added value of China’s manufacturing industry accounted for around one-third of the global total, and China contributed 32% to the global economic growth.As stated in the recently issued Report on the Work of the Government 2024, China seeks to achieve a GDP growth rate of around 5% for 2024, once again demonstrating to the international community the bright prospects of China’s sustained economic growth. The bright prospects of China’s economy benefit from stable economic policies. Under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, China is committed to advancing Chinese modernisation on all fronts through high-quality development, integrating the current goals with long-term needs, and ensuring the continuity, stability and consistency of macro policies.When pursuing economic development, China stands firm in choosing not to adopt a deluge of strong stimulus policies, and not to seek short-term growth while accumulating long-term risks. Instead, China focuses on comprehensively deepening reform and opening up across the board, continuously optimising the economic structure, and maintaining steady economic growth with a stable employment, price level and foreign exchange.The bright prospects of China’s economy benefit from its solid fundamentals. In terms of domestic demand, China possesses a vast market featuring a population of 1.4bn with GDP per capita exceeding US$12,000. In China, there are now over 400mn people in the middle-income bracket, and the number is expected to reach 800mn in the next decade or so, generating strong impetus for upgrading consumption. Moreover, China’s rural vitalisation strategy in progress will create greater demand. In terms of the industrial base, China is the only country with industries across all categories in the UN industrial classification. The added value of China’s manufacturing industry accounts for around 30% of the global total, ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years. China is also home to over 200 mature industry clusters. In addition, with its huge data output and rich data resources, China has the second largest data mine in the world, which builds a solid foundation for the IT industries including big data and cloud computing. The bright prospects of China’s economy benefit from new growth drivers. China’s demographic dividend is turning into talent dividend. China now ranks first in the world in terms of the size of talent pool, human resources in science and technology and the total number of researchers.China’s total input in research and development and investment in the high-tech sector has been growing at double-digit rates for several years, which accelerates the formation of new quality productive forces. New technologies, including artificial intelligence and blockchain, are being applied at a faster pace. New products and new business forms such as intelligent terminals, robots and telehealth keep emerging.China is also cultivating large-scale new growth drivers in sectors such as green infrastructure, green energy, green transportation and green lifestyle. This will generate investment and consumption markets with an estimated size of RMB10tn yuan annually, and promises huge potential.The bright prospects of China’s economy benefit from its increasingly optimised business environment. The report on China’s business environment in 2023 shows that over 90% of companies surveyed rated China’s business environment as ‘satisfied’ or above. China actively promotes trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, with overall tariff level cut to 7.3%, relatively on par with the developed members of the WTO. Over the past five years, the rate of return on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in China was 9.1%, much higher than the US and European countries. Many foreign-funded businesses continue to hold optimistic view on China, keep investing in China, and further deepen their trade exchanges with China. Last year, newly established foreign-invested enterprises in China rose to nearly 54,000, up around 40% over 2022, and the number of newly established businesses by the United States, European countries and Japan in China is on the rise. In 2023, China’s FDI in actual use stood at RMB 1133.9bn yuan, remaining at an historical high. The so-called ‘foreign capital fleeing China’ is nothing but a lie.Holding a vast economy, China always places its own development in the context of human development, advocating universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation. China stays committed to being a sincere friend and a faithful partner of all countries on their paths of development, while firmly rejecting the moves including decoupling, cutting off supply chains, and the ‘small yard, high fence’ strategy. China never engages in economic coercion or financial extortion. Beijing always believes that pursuing protectionism is like locking oneself in a dark room. While wind and rain may be kept outside, that dark room will also block light and air.China always believes that only by deepening practical co-operation, pursuing co-operation through consultation and keeping all participants motivated can the fruits of development benefit all countries and peoples. China is actively promoting the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), building a new platform for international economic cooperation and injecting new impetus into the global economy. As of now, China has conducted more than 3,000 co-operation projects with relevant parties, and catalysed investment of nearly $1tn under the BRI. The high-quality development of China’s economy provides a significant strategic opportunity for Qatar as well. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of strategic partnership between China and Qatar. Over the past decade, under the strategic guidance of His Excellency President Xi Jinping and His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the mutually beneficial co-operation between China and Qatar has been increasingly expanded. China has been Qatar’s top trading partner and top destination of exports for many years. Qatar has remained China’s second-largest source of LNG imports.Doha has become a must-visit destination for many Chinese tourists. Qatar Airways carries over 10,000 passengers every week from China to destinations worldwide. The Qatar National Bank holds an optimistic outlook on the prospects of China’s economic development. It has become a firm consensus among Qatar’s business community to follow the trends of the times and strengthen economic co-operation with China. Qatar officially launched its Third National Development Strategy of Qatar National Vision 2030 in January this year. This strategy shares similar notions, goals and timelines with China’s Vision 2035. Embarking on our respective fast paths for national rejuvenation, China and Qatar are fully capable of further synergising our development strategies to foster new drivers of practical co-operation, achieving complementary growth in sectors including manufacturing, energy, technology, finance and green development, and building a brighter future for China-Qatar economic co-operation.Qatar is among the first countries to ink co-operation documents under the BRI with China. China is willing to sign the plan for implementing the joint construction of the BRI with Qatar at an early date, drawing up a roadmap for the two countries’ co-operation under the BRI. It will set a good example for high-quality joint construction of the BRI between China and the GCC states, the Middle East countries and the Arab countries.The tremendous potentials of China’s economy present an ever-promising prospect for the practical co-operation between China and Qatar. Let us join hands to build a brighter future for China-Qatar strategic partnership!