BEIJING, January 16 (TMTPost)-- China’s GDP, or gross domestic product, grew by around 5.1% in 2023, ahead of the round 5% official annual target set at the start of the year, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, a day earlier than the official release of GDP that year.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

In a special address delivered at the opening ceremony of WEF, Li Qiang shared recent information about China’s economy. As an important engine of global development, China has contributed to world economic growth with a stable portion of about 30% over years, and its economy rebounded and moved upward in 2023, Li commented, adding domestic economy is making steady progress and will continue to provide strong impetus for the world economy. Instead of short-term growth through “massive stimulus”, China focuses on reinforcing the internal drives, and its economy can weather ups and downs, so the overall trend of long-term growth will not change, Li said. He noted new technologies, including cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, are being applied at a faster pace in his country, and new products and new business forms such as intelligent terminals, robots and telehealth keep emerging. China now has some 400,000 high-tech enterprises and ranks second globally in the number of unicorn companies, Li said.

Li highlighted China has a supersize market with rapidly unlocked demand. China’s middle-class citizens are expected to reach 800 million in the next decade or so, about doubling from over 400 million people currently. For a growing range of products and services, the focus of consumer demand is shifting from quantity to quality, which will generate strong driving force for upgrading consumption. Moreover, China has much room for infrastructural upgrading in urban renewal, transportation and telecommunications, among others, since its urbanization rate is now more than 10 percentage points lower than the average level of the developed countries. Li suggested China has great potential in deepening its transition toward green and low-carbon growth. Close to half of the world's installed photovoltaic capacity is in China. Over half of the world's new energy vehicles (NEVs) run on roads in China, and its NEV ownership has reached over 20 million units.

Li pledged to remain firmly committed to opening up. China is right now a major trading partner of over 140 countries and regions and will continue to create favorable conditions for the world to share in its opportunities, Li said. “By opening up wider, we aim to share China's opportunities and develop together with all in the world,” the Premier stated. He encouraged foreigh business leader to continue their investments and ventures in China. “Choosing the Chinese market is not a risk, but an opportunity,” Li said. “We embrace investments from businesses of all countries with open arms, and will work tirelessly to foster a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment. We will steadily expand institutional opening up, continue to shorten the negative list for foreign investment, follow through on removing all restrictions on access for foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, and guarantee national treatment for foreign businesses.” Li said China is working on formulating policies to address some multinationals’ concerns such as issues on cross-border data flow and equal participation in government procurement.

The theme of this year's WEF meeting, "Rebuilding Trust," echoes well with people's concerns, Li said. He proposed five points on rebuilding trust and enhancing cooperation in the economic field, the first of which is strengthening macroeconomic policy coordination to build greater synergy for global growth. It is crucial that, in making and executing macro policies, countries around the world, especially major economies, step up dialogue and communication, take more coordinated and effective measures, firmly uphold the multilateral trading system, jointly improve global economic governance, and foster new drivers of global growth. The second is strengthening international industrial specialization and collaboration to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and smooth. The third is strengthening international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology to better benefit humanity with technological advances. The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation has created a new "coopetition" relationship between countries, Li observed. Only to enhance cooperation in innovation can keep the competition healthy and bring out the greatest vitality, according to Li. He called for advancement of international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology with a more open mindset and more open measures, joint work for an open, just and nondiscriminatory environment for the development of science and technology, and breaking the barriers impeding the flow of factors of innovation, so as to let innovation thrive in an open environment. The fourth is strengthening cooperation on green development to actively tackle climate change. Li urged the worldwide governments to uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, better synergize our green development strategies, remove various barriers in this field, and jointly work for a complete transition to a greener economy and society. The fifth is strengthening North-South and South-South cooperation to build a universally beneficial and inclusive world economy.