Sharing the Premium of China’s Economic Growth with the World.

By Zhang Yiming, Chinese ambassador to Namibia. 

Windhoek, Feb 12 – – Covid-19, the widest spread pandemic in the past 100 years, has posed serious threats to the life and health of human beings worldwide and thrust the global economy into the deepest recession since the World War II. Faced with this sudden and abrupt crisis, China, under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government, was the first to fight against the pandemic, and to have contained it and achieved economic recovery, thus providing the world with impetus and confidence in the fight against Covid-19 and in economic recovery. By the end of 2020, China’s GDP topped RMB 101.6 trillion (US$14.7 trillion), and its share in the world economy increased to 17%. With its annual economic growth rate at 2.3%, China is the only major economy in the world registering positive growth last year, leading the world in pandemic prevention and control and economic recovery.

This achievement is hard-won.At the beginning of 2020, there was a time when 1.4 billion Chinese people had to stay at home to fight the pandemic, just like a “pause” button being pressed down in social and economic activities, and consequently China’s GDP plummeted sharply by 6.8% in the first quarter. However, China effectively controlled the pandemic in the shortest time by decisively adopting the most comprehensive, stringent and thorough prevention and control measures in face of the raging pandemic, laying a solid foundation for economic recovery. For the rest of the year China had been actively pursuing various policies to resume and restore economic activities, such as strengthening employment, promoting investment and consumption, stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, stabilizing the industrial chain etc. to counterbalance the negative impact of the Pandemic. The exemption or cut in taxes and fees reached more than RMB 2.5 trillion (US $370 billion) throughout the year while loans for small and micro businesses increased by more than 30%. Priority was given to ensuring the employment and basic livelihood of residents, and more than 11 million new jobs were created in urban areas. China also step up efforts to ensure food and energy security and to stabilize the industrial supply chain. Relying on scientific decision-making and precise policy implementation, China’s economy has shown strong resilience by presenting a V-shaped growth curve.

The Pandemic has also speeded up the changes that the world is undergoing unseen in the last century. The international trade has shrunk sharply, cross-border investment activities have been significantly suppressed, and the traditional industrialization process has been hindered. Furthermore, some countries have implemented “decoupling” in the economic, financial and technological fields due to ideological prejudices, and engaged in “small circles” and “new cold wars”, which has not only caused more serious globalization imbalances, but also aggravated the division of the international community. When attending the World Economic Forum “Davos Agenda” dialogue meeting on January 25, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the problems facing the world are intricate and complex. The way out of them is through upholding multilateralism and building a community with a shared future for mankind. China will continue to take an active part in international cooperation on Covid-19, implement a win-win strategy of opening-up, promote sustainable development, advance science, technology and innovation, and promote a new type of international relations. It serves no one’s interest to use the pandemic as an excuse to reverse globalization and go for seclusion and decoupling. As a longstanding supporter of economic globalization, China is committed to following through on its fundamental policy of opening-up. China will continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, help keep the global industrial and supply chains smooth and stable, and unleash the potential of the huge China market and enormous domestic demand to give further impetus to global economic recovery and growth.

The year 2021 marks the launch of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan. Foreseeing the new changes in the internal and external situations in the post-Pandemic era, China will foster a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. This is not only a strategic plan to inject new impetus into the development of the world economy, but also a new mechanism for China to make greater contributions to the world economy.

Domestic circulation being the mainstay, is by no means a closed loop only circulating domestically, but an open cycle dually circulating both domestically and internationally.The new development paradigm will enable China to fully unlock its market potential, and to open up wider and share more opportunities with other countries. This also means that China’s economy will shift from a long-term dependence on exports and investment to a new consumption-driven economic growth model. China has a population of 1.4 billion and a middle-income group that exceeds 400 million. China’s retail market reached six trillion dollars in size last year. Total import into China is estimated to top 22 trillion US dollars in the coming decade. China is the world’s largest growth market, and the new dual-cycle development paradigm will lead the world economy to continue to grow and open up. According to OECD’s forecast in December 2020, China will contribute to over one third of the world economic growth in 2021.

Global businesses have reached a consensus that the Chinese market has become a market of the world, and a market shared by all. The new economic development paradigm of dual-cycle mutual promotion provides other countries with broad markets and development opportunities. This was fully reflected in the two large-scale events in early November last year in China. More than 150 countries participated in the 3rd China International Import Expo, and the total turnover exceeded US$70 billion. The large-scale shopping carnival, Tmall’s “Double 11” event attracted 25,000 overseas enterprises. During the event, the transaction volume reached 74 billion US dollars. There were 470 foreign companies with a transaction volume of more than RMB 100 million, of which American companies accounted for the majority. China is becoming a high-end consumer market for countries all over the world to strive into.

Being good brothers and partners, China and Africa always pursue a shared future. In 2020, China and Africa’s friendship has become even stronger through the ordeal of Covid-19. The Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against Covid-19, successfully held between Chinese President Xi Jinping and African leaders further strengthened our friendship. China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to five Africa countries in early January 2021 reflects the long-held tradition for over 30 years that each year Chinese Foreign Ministers choose Africa as the first overseas visit destination. Under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the two sides have drafted and implemented the Ten Cooperation Plans and the Eight Major Initiatives.The two-way trade has grown 20-fold and China’s direct investment in Africa has grown 100-fold in the last 20 years. China has become the largest trading partner and major investor in most African countries. China has by far signed Belt and Road agreements with 46 African countries. The official launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area this year is another milestone in the process of African economic integration. China stands ready to work with Africa to engage the development strategies of both sides, support Africa’s infrastructure construction, support Africa’s industrialization process, support Africa’s enhancement of independent development capabilities, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

China and Namibia enjoy long-standing friendship and we have forged a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership relationship. In recent years, China-Namibia economic cooperation has developed rapidly and China has become the largest source of investment and the largest export market for Namibia. China’s investment projects in Namibia, such as China’s largest single investment project in Africa, the Husab Uranium Mine, have largely enhanced the employment and economic development for local people. Chinese consumers have also tasted high-quality beef and oysters products from Namibia. Namibia is a country with huge development potential and China is willing to push our bilateral relations to a new high by further strengthening cooperation with Namibia in infrastructure construction, agriculture, industrial parks, energy and other sectors, help to accelerate the process of industrialization and agricultural modernization etc. I also sincerely look forward to it that more high-quality Namibian products will enter Chinese market in the near future!

Published by:

Robert Maseka.

mrobert@namibiadailynews.info