Challenges and opportunities facing Chinese economy in 2019

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02:48

The Central Economic Work Conference, China's most important annual meeting on economy, concluded on Friday, with a report showing the direction for the country's economic development in 2019.

The document set the tone for the coming year, pointing out profound changes in the external environment and the multiple challenges ahead. The report says, "China is still and will be in an important period of strategic opportunity."

Professor John Gong from the University of International Business and Economics said the document mainly refers to the rapid changes in the external environment, especially those spearheaded by the United States and targeting China in trade.

The expert also noted that China is facing some changes in international governance and organizations, amid a global economic slowdown.

"All of these combined pose quite a challenging environment going into next year," he noted, adding that China's translation of crisis is "opportunity."

Gong suggested taking advantage of the changes and emerging into a new international economic order.

Talking about the daunting challenges domestically and abroad, Gong expressed belief that China has to continue the supply-side structural reform as some industries still have excessive capacities.

As the economy is slowing down, it creates the shortage of demands, making the excessive capacities a bigger problem. Meanwhile, trade frictions with the United States continue to bubble, making the gap between supply and demand even wider. So the government needs to continue implementing a proactive fiscal policy to tackle economic slowdown.