China’s economy achieves steady progress
By Lu Yanan, People’s Daily
China’s economy enjoyed a robust year in 2018. In one minute, 7 patent applications are submitted; 4,166 passengers travel by high speed trains; 94,000 express parcels are delivered; and deals worth 510 million yuan are completed through mobile payment.
Facing complicated international environment and arduous domestic tasks of reform, development and stability, China remains committed to the underlying principle of making progress while keeping performance stable, gaining the best overall effect with an optimal policy mix.
China has again made remarkable achievements in employment. In November, the urban unemployment rate stood at only 4.8 percent, which not only has met the annual target, but also was 0.7 percentage points lower than the global figure estimated by the International Labour Organization. Such performance was hailed by foreign media as an “employment miracle” of the most populous country.
China has continuously optimized its economic structure. In the first three quarters this year, the tertiary industry accounted for 53.1 percent of the country’s GDP, contributing 60.8 percent to the national economic growth. Final consumption contributed 78 percent to the economic growth, 46.2 percentage points higher than that done by the gross capital formation.
China has continuously improved the quality and benefits of development. It cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 3.1 percent in the first three quarters of 2018, while the total energy consumption increased by 3.4 percent from a year ago.
In addition, the performance of enterprises was enhanced and the fiscal revenue saw a steady growth. The growth rate of the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in real terms outpaced that of the per capita GDP.
China’s economic operation in 2018 maintained within a proper range, said Mao Shengyong, spokesperson of National Bureau of Statistics. There is little doubt that China’s economy will be able to expand by 6.5% this year, he added.
China is currently shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality development, by means of better quality, higher efficiency, and more robust drivers of economic growth through reform. It aims the promotion of industrial restructuring and upgrading, as well as the strengthening of the real economy.
Thanks to the 3D printing technology, Farsoon Technologies in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan province, is now able to produce a variety of products, ranging from false teeth, aviation impellers to formula cars.
The company’s performance saw an explosive growth, and half of its products were exported to the high-end overseas destinations, said Xu Xiaoshu, founder and chairman of the company. The 3D printing technology is leading a revolution among Chinese enterprises from medical, automobile and aviation sectors to make their products lighter and smarter, Xu added.
Nationz Technologies headquartered in Shenzhen invented a security chip for bank cards, reducing the price of similar products from $4 to less than 4 yuan. “China’s products, carrying little weight twenty years ago, are now quite competitive in the global market,” said Zhu Yongmin, deputy general manger of the company.
Every day about 18,000 enterprises were registered in China, and more than 800 technology business incubators were established. And contracts worth over one trillion yuan in technology market were also signed. A large number of entrepreneurs in the fields of materials, medicine and information technology integrated various business formats, and boosted new dynamism.
2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. Strong measures will further advance the cause and inject impetus into the national development.
Regarding business environment, a World Bank report released on Oct. 31 this year ranked China number 46, up by 32 spots from 2017.
Rita Ramalho, Senior Manager of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group, said that China carried out a record number of reforms during the year to improve its business climate for small and medium enterprises, earning the country a place in this year’s top 10 global improvers.
Ramalho added that China implemented the largest number of reforms in the East Asia and Pacific region, and ranked the second in the world regarding the number of economic reforms. Both lead to a substantial rise in the global scoring and ranking, she added.
China introduced a new foreign investment negative list this year, largely opening up 22 sectors to foreign investors. It also enhanced efforts on the protection of intellectual property rights. Besides, a series of measures were adopted to open China even wider to the world, which has won wide praise from foreign entrepreneurs.
In the first 11 months, a total of 54,703 foreign-funded enterprises were newly registered in China, up 77.5 percent over the previous year. The first China International Import Expo, as the world’s first import-themed national expo, attracted over 400,000 buyers from home and abroad and concluded prospective deals worth $57.8 billion.
Through this Expo, China further showed the world its positive attitude to take the initiative in opening its market to the outside and creating a better life together with people across the world.
