THROUGH various policy initiatives, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is striving hard to gear up the CPEC Phase-II in the country. He desired relocation of the Chinese qualitative industries in the country stimulating the process of qualitative industrialization, digitalization and artificial intelligence.
Unfortunately, ongoing severe political polarization is badly hurting long-term socio-economic planning and plans and economic stability & sustainability is now at stake. The recent surge in terrorism and political opposition to operation Azm-e-Istehkam is damaging the country’s credibility in terms of seeking more and more inflows of FDIs and joint ventures in the country. Even ISPR’s detailed press briefing outlined terrorism and safety & security as main attributers to the country’s prosperity.
The government, policymakers, and stakeholders of Pakistan must learn from the recent Third Plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee in Beijing. The Communiqué announced a strategic roadmap for China’s reforms and modernization. Pakistan needs to adopt similar structural reforms to navigate its economic and geopolitical challenges, focusing on modernization, innovation, investment, talent development, state sector reform, improved economic governance, and fostering a conducive environment for private sector growth.
This comprehensive policy agenda supports robust economic development, including EVs, lithium batteries, green technologies, industrial growth, balanced rural-urban development, and digitalization. It promises short, medium, and long-term economic stability, sustainability, diversification, modernization, and innovation, while accelerating investments and joint ventures in Pakistan. The Global South, BRI, and CPEC will likely benefit the most, with even the Global North reaping rewards from China’s continued modernization and innovation.
It also covers core issues of China’s national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, public security governance mechanisms, and last but not least the social governance system through pursuing an independent foreign policy of peace and promoting a human community with a shared future in which persuasion of the Xi’s Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative and equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization would play an important role.
By sticking to the path of peaceful development despite the world experiencing profound changes and great turbulence and formation of bloc confrontation vividly reflects China’s consistent belief in international cooperation and economic globalization. China’s emphasis to safeguard its core interests through powerful and reliable capabilities in national security and national defense is the need of the hour because of political and military manoeuvrings in Asia Pacific by the Western forces.
The regional and global communities and firms were satisfied with the outcome of the 3rd plenum and showed their keen interest to further invest in China. The long-term stability and vast growth potential of the world’s second-largest economy disseminated the message of reliability, productivity, positivity and diversity and China’s institutional opening-up and the development of new quality productive forces will definitely create more opportunities for the entire world and will further improve the business environment for foreign enterprises. Thus the Chinese digital market and investment in new energy projects will be one of the main attractions of FDIs.
China’s economic growth rate in the first half of the year remained faster than that of major economies such as the US, the Eurozone and Japan. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s GDP reached around 61.68 trillion Yuan (about US$8.65 trillion), and grew 5 percent year on year in the first half of 2024. In the second quarter, the country’s GDP expanded by 4.7 percent year on year.
Additionally, the Chinese macro-economy achieved an average annual growth rate of 6.1 percent from 2013 to 2023, ranking among the top in the world and contributing over 30 percent to global economic growth each year confirming its vibrancy and diversification.
It rightly supports structural reforms to further strengthening and diversification of macro-economy, opening-up, high Chinese socialism, qualitative development, liberalization of market, good governance and innovation which has stimulated the message of consistency and continuity.
It sets 2035 as building a high-standard socialist market economy in all respects, further improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, generally modernized national system and capacity for governance, and basically realized socialist modernization which is achievable and functional.
Further liberalization of the market through a fairer and more dynamic environment and efficient and productive resources allocation and effective regulation will be institutionalized to better maintain order in the market and remedy a market failure which is a right move in the right direction.
Achieving high-quality development through deepening supply-side structural reform, improving incentive and constraint mechanisms along with development, and creating new drivers and strengths for realizing growth is indeed an appropriate policy measure. Securing all around innovation through deep comprehensive reforms in education, structural scientific and technological reform, and institutional reforms for talent development is the need of the hour which would be a new bunch mark of qualitative human capital.
Introduction of stronger policies to stabilize economic growth, stabilize the property market, boost the stock market, support the development of the private economy, and improve the employment rate and income level of residents is the need of hour. Moreover, consumption tax, central and local fiscal reforms, social security, a unified national market and technological innovation should also be institutionalized.
In summary, the IMF most recently published report and the Financial Times and the Economist articles all indicate strength, stability and sustainability of the Chinese macro-economy and removed all misperceptions about over-capacity and warned that decoupling and delinking policies would hurt the western economies.
China has been an engine of global growth for decades and there is no doubt that it will continue to be an important player in global development in decades to come. Its steady economic progress and significant potential in trade and investment are undoubtedly major positive news for the current global economy. Hopefully, China will continue to be a major global player in manufacturing clean energy technologies, electric vehicles and digital technologies, among others. It seems that China’s stable economic growth is a great boon not only to China itself, but also to the rest of the world, particularly to the least developed countries and developing countries.
China has always shared its fruits of development with the rest of the world through several global initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilisation Initiative, China’s resilient economic growth will inject stronger impetus into building a community with a shared future for mankind.
China has been and will continue to be a key contributor to promoting global peace, security, stability, common development and shared prosperity.
