July 1, 2018 was the 97th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Marking this event, CGTN's Martin Lowe sat down with former Thai prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, who led Thailand between 2008 and 2011. He says China has become a global 'engine of economic growth'.

ABHISIT VEJJAJIVA FORMER THAI PRIME MINISTER "Over the last century and particularly in the last few decades we have seen tremendous economic growth and prosperity in the country, China has become a dominant force and an engine of growth for the region and even for the global economy, lifting millions of people out of poverty, so that's an evident success as far as the achievements of the party and the country is concerned."

MARTIN LOWE CORRESPONDENT "China practices a form of democracy called Socialist Consultative Democracy, how well does that allow political groups and political parties to consult and form consensus?"

ABHISIT VEJJAJIVA FORMER THAI PRIME MINISTER "Well I think the success that we talked about economically stems from an effective process in terms of finding the needs of the people, responding to those needs, getting the feedbacks and building some kind of consensus as to how that is achieved, so the process within the party to achieve those ends have been very effective. Obviously, there will be future challenges, I think as the economy grows and becomes more sophisticated it's going to be a lot harder to build consensus and it will call into question whether the process that they have practiced can replace or be put in place instead of political competition."

MARTIN LOWE CORRESPONDENT "What benefits, particularly for Southeast Asia, can China's Belt and Road initiative bring and how can it help regional economic development?"

ABHISIT VEJJAJIVA FORMER THAI PRIME MINISTER "Well, connectivity is the key to making many of the trade and investment agreements concrete – it's no good having agreements when you cannot transport goods or allow people to achieve greater trading investment, the infrastructure once it's built and connects up new areas, will also allow for new areas for growth and development."