Chinese Premier Shows Confidence to the Country’s Economy

By staff reporter XING WEN

Persistent downward pressures will not prevent the Chinese economy from meeting its medium-high growth target, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang noted at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum’s 10th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin on June 27, 2016. He pointed out that China has made significant progress in transforming its economy through structural reforms and the country will maintain stable and sustainable economic growth by pursuing structural reforms and promoting innovation and new drivers of development despite a weak recovery of the global economy and rising market volatility and uncertainty.  

According to Li, the number of new enterprises in China is growing faster than in the past two years. On top of that, the rise in domestic consumption is compensating for the downturn in exports and service is now the largest sector of the economy. “The Chinese economy will not head for a hard landing and we are capable of meeting our targets for this year. The prospects are bright.” The Premier stressed in his speech.  

In the meantime, China is faced with such economic challenges as the need to address the global problem of overcapacity, make governance more efficient and continue to pursue structural reforms. The Premier acknowledged that the difficulties and downward pressures are still mounting. “But the fact that we have faced up to and admitted to these difficulties shows that we have the determination to prevail over them.” He added that optimism is a sign of confidence.

At the opening plenary, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, outlined the challenges posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Huang Xingguo, acting party secretary of the Communist Party of China Tianjin Municipal Committee and mayor of Tianjin, also referred to the “momentum and sweeping impact” of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which he said “will completely change the traditional way of life and production and reshape the economic landscape of the future.”