As one of the major propellants of the global progress, China’s economic trends has been attracting everyone's attention. More than 300 economists, governors, scholars and representatives of international institutions were in attendance at the China Development Forum (CDF) 2017, held on Sunday, where opinions focused on expectations for the world economy as well as China’s.
CCTV Mandarin reporters have invited business experts to use a Chinese character or an English word to describe the world’s second largest economy.
Current and former top officials of China’s Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), the body commissioned for doing research on strategic issues in China's economic and social development, used the exact Chinese character without previous arrangement.
Screen grab showing accord between the current and former governors of DRC, as they jotted down the same Chinese character "转" to describe the Chinese economy. /CCTV-13 Photo
Liu Shijin, former Vice-Minister of DRC who retired in 2015, used the Chinese character “转,” which means "to transform."
Liu said the Chinese economy is in the process of re-balance and transformation.
“We relied more on industry and investment previously, and we will shift to service and consumption in the future,” Liu added when mentioning the country's structural economic reforms.
Liu Shijin (L), former Vice-Minister of DRC and Wang Yiming (R), current Vice-Minister of DRC. /CCTV-13 Photo
Wang Yiming, Vice-Minister of DRC, wrote down the same Chinese character as Liu when asked to provide a description of the Chinese economy.
“Our attention has transferred from quantity and volume to quality and efficiency,” Wang said.
Wang noted that some changes and transformation are happening, and China has to consolidate them to take the economy through an “L-shaped” pattern of slowing to “horizontal” growth.
Two experts from New York but with opposing opinions
Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, used the word “confusion” when he described China's economy.
Wolf enumerated three major challenges he said are facing the Chinese economy: Improving innovation, facing shrinking demographic dividend with aging labor force, and increasing credit risks with rapid growth of leverage.
Christopher Pissarides
Christopher Pissarides, 2010 laureate of Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, said he held a different opinion from Wolf.
Pissarides used the word “fascinating” and said so many things that happened in China deserve to be studies, giving the supply-side structural reform as an example.
Pissarides said “I’m sure Martin would agree with that is fascinating.”
ex World Bank chief economist employs polyphonic Chinese character
Lin Yifu, Chinese economist
Lin Yifu, the first non-Westerner to be chief economist of the World Bank, used “行,” a polyphonic Chinese character.
Lin said one meaning of “行,” which means good, describes how China's economy is faring in comparison with other economies. Lin noted that China's annual contribution to global economic development is more than 30 percent.
The other meaning, which means "to take action," describes the chore to carry forward and strive for the economic growth target. "We need to make use of the favorable conditions to develop economy and I believe the GDP growth target of more than 6.5 percent is definitely possible," he stated.
