ALL eyes are currently focused on Beijing as China has concluded a much hyped po-litical season where the Two Sessions with global influence were held at Great Hall of the People’s starting from March 4th and 5th. Annual sessions also known as “Li-anghui” set the tone of China’s diplomacy, social development macro-economy, eco-nomic growth, economic achievements, financial management, fiscal and monetary targets, military, education, medical and all other sector’s agenda at the start of Chi-nese New Year. The government work report delivered by the Chinese premier every year becomes the hallmark and is being awaited eagerly as it sets the economic and policy goals of China for the year ahead.
The Two Sessions were held at a time when the global economy has been continu-ously facing the abuse of protectionism, isolationism and geo political tensions fuelled up by western nations. In this backdrop the international community has attached the highest hopes with the positive performance of the Chinese economy as its recovery following the post COVID era may also add new growth momentum to the interna-tional economy as well. The 2nd largest economy of the world, China, wrapped up the economic targets of 2023 which means that the process of the country’s economic transformation will be a procedure of deep interaction with the world economy and opening up to the world market will be continued in the New Year.
The latest statistics released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.2 percent year on year to a new high of 126.06 trillion Yuan (about 17.7 trillion U.S. dollars) last year. Facing the impact of the counter-tide of economic globalization, as pursuing a mutually beneficial opening-up strategy, China needs to accelerate the structural reforms aimed at economic trans-formation, constantly enhance the internal and external linkage of development, re-lease the huge growth potential of economic transformation, stimulate the market vi-tality and stabilize the growth expectation in the year 2024. However, some important issues that need to be kept in mind are about the latest forecast of the International Monetary Fund about the Chinese economy which projects that China’s economy is projected to grow 4.6 percent in 2024, compared with 5.2 percent in 2023.
In this scenario, the one very important task that China needs to do is about the diver-sification of its reforms that can give priorities to the decisive role of market in do-mestic economy ensuring a fairer and more competitive environment for international firms that can play their extended role in the economic vibrancy of Chinese society in this year. The direction of economic policy that has been announced in the work re-port at the inaugural session will have the direct impact of trade between China and other Asian countries, especially South Asian, Central Asian and Southeast Asian na-tions.
In recent years, China has emerged as a leading trading partner in global import and export and the largest trade partner for many economies as China’s trade volume with South Asian nations has reached 197.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 8.3 percent. It shows the economic policies and performance of China with its GDP targets for the year 2024 will be having much more positive eco-nomic trajectories for many countries in this financial year. The economic measure has already generated the message that China is implementing an integrated trade co-operation strategy that seeks harmony at the global and regional level so as to partici-pate in international economic cooperation on a larger scope, on a higher level and to a greater depth.
In the year 2024, China with its status of responsible and influential economy of the world will not only continue promoting the development of the world economy through its development but will also provide its plans on constructing an open, inclu-sive and shared world economy. In the days to come, China will play a bigger role in strengthening the global economic governance structure featuring mutual benefits and a win-win outcome by building a shared future for mankind. These indicators have laid a stable and logical foundation for the stable performance of China’s economy in 2024 as well by engaging all the domestic and global stakeholders on the same page amidst the sluggish recovery of the global economy.
China has targeted its economic growth at around 5 percent for 2024, a goal that offi-cials and experts believe is well within reach considering the country’s sound eco-nomic fundamentals and supportive macroeconomic policy mix. China has the confi-dence, capabilities and conditions to meet the economic and social development tar-gets for this year. In order to ease the economic globalization plight, the current situa-tion of China’s economy will also essentially inject new impetus into global economic growth as well as imbalance in international economic development.
