by Misbah Saba Malik, Liu Tian
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China, the only major economy to witness positive growth this year, has shown the world that it would continue acting as a major driving force for the global economy to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, said a Pakistani political economist.
The Chinese leadership has always demonstrated its intent to share the country's success with the rest of the world and its resolve to see the world as a community with a shared future, Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, director of China Study Center at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an Islamabad-based think-tank, told Xinhua.
"The Chinese leadership has also shown its commitment to work with world leaders to ensure that ... it can act as a pull-factor for the world economy. This is the reason why ... China's Belt and Road Initiative is making the world economy grow and the involving players prosper, indicating that China will be continuing its role of being the economic driving force," he said.
Referring to China's annual Central Economic Work Conference that concluded on Friday, Ramay noted that China has decided to expand domestic demand in a bid to boost its home market.
"It means that the country aims to increase the domestic consumption of the 1.4-billion strong market," he said.
"In this way, China will definitely be in the process to go not only for economic transformation, but will also be increasing income level and living standard of its people, which will lead to an increase in domestic consumption, and help export more from other countries, creating good opportunities for the international companies in the Chinese market and giving them chances to benefit from the domestic market of China," Ramay explained.
Another impressive decision of the annual Central Economic Work Conference, according to Ramay, was China's focus on strengthening its national strategic technologies. It will serve as one of the major elements in China's modern economy, he said.
Touching upon China's efforts to promote innovation, he said China has been working for the last 10 years with one of the primary focuses on innovation, as "it is the key to transforming the economy" from a middle-income economy to a developed one.
"China is paying a lot of attention to innovation and has developed a lot in the field of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, 5G technology," Ramay added.
Taking China's booming digital economy as an example of the country's achievements in encouraging innovation, the Pakistani expert noted that "China's digital market recently showed its strength during the pandemic. When there were lockdowns in China, its supply chains never stopped and China's e-commerce companies kept on thriving at home and abroad."
Ramay also expressed his confidence in China's economy next year and in the fulfillment of the goals the Chinese leadership has set at the meeting.
"China has high-quality risk management," he said, adding that it is the reason behind China's success in containing the pandemic and getting its economy growing, especially in the context of a shrinking world economy.
"The way the Chinese economy saw growth in Q2 and Q3 of the ongoing fiscal year ... has indicated that China can achieve what it plans," Ramay stressed, noting that all economic indicators suggest that China will keep growing and helping world economies grow in the post-pandemic future. Enditem
