China's reforms influence world: experts

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-11-14 9:40:55



The 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) unveiled here Tuesday an outline for comprehensively deepening reform, which foreign media and experts believe will have far-reaching influence on the world.

"China must build on the reality that it remains in the primary stage of socialism and will long remain so while pursuing comprehensive, deeper reform," according to a communique issued after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, held from November 9 to November 12.

New reforms, new opportunities

China, the world's second largest economy, had committed to deepening reforms to achieve a sustainable development, which would influence the global economy, many experts said.

"China is an engine of global economy. China's export orders and import orders affect development of various sectors in many countries," Deputy Head of the Russian Academy of Sciences Far East Institute Andrei Ostrovsky told Xinhua in an interview.

He said China's deepening of fiscal reform would play a significant role in promoting China's economic growth and boosting the global economy.

"The growth of China's gross domestic product (GDP) will help expand China's imports and exports, which will dramatically promote the economic growth of many countries, such as the US, the European Union countries, India, Brazil and Russia," Ostrovsky said.

China's GDP climbed 7.8 percent in the third quarter compared to a year ago, well above the full-year target of 7.5 percent, according to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics.

When China's economy grows at a rate of 7.5 percent for the whole year, the contribution of China's economic growth to the global economic growth is 27.76 percent, International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics show.

The third plenum was not only important for China, but also for the global economy, the director of research and senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution Li Cheng told Xinhua.

"The third plenum will give China's middle class more opportunities to invest their resources in small businesses and the service sector, really making the private sector one of the driving forces of China's economic development," Li said.

He said, as the middle class would play an important role in investment and consumption, this could really put China in very good shape in today's global economic landscape.

All dimensional reform plan

The top-level design of comprehensive and deep reform approved by the third plenary session will promote reforms in fields such as democracy, advanced culture, a harmonious society and ecological civilization, which will not only benefit China's social and economic development, but also influence the world in multiple ways.

Regarding the rule of law, the cornerstone of democracy, the session pledged to respect the authority of the constitution and legislation and deepen reforms in administrative law enforcement, so as to ensure fair and independent exercise of jurisdictional and procuratorial power, the sound running of the judicial power mechanism and completion of a judicial system of human rights protection.

Required for market effectiveness and social justice, the rule of law, which supports the stability of China's economy and society, will also boost cooperation between China the the rest of the world.

Warren Mcfarlan, emeritus professor at Harvard Business School, told Xinhua, "In every step along the way, it's making you (China) easier to deal with, that people will get more comfortable. For example, when we invested in China, we can't really count on the legal instrument, the legal instrument doesn't mean much."

"As time goes forward, it will be easier for you to get more people investing when people are more comfortable that there is a real rule of law. That again is not something you can talk about today, but you'll get there," Mcfarlan.

Meanwhile, in order to achieve the prosperity of culture, the meeting called for the creation and completion of a modern public cultural service and market system.

Acknowledged by experts home and abroad, the prosperity of Chinese culture, which cherishes harmony in diversity, will strengthen China's soft power and mutual understanding with the rest of the world, and consequently lays foundations for a harmonious and peaceful Earth.

As for social justice, members of the CPC's central committee agreed to reform the income distribution system for common prosperity, so as to ensure and improve people's lives.

In a phone interview with Xinhua, Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University's Institute of Global Affairs and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said, if the economic transformation played out, the development of Chinese consumption could be one of the most important developments for the world economy, too, including the United States.

"In my hope for China, these are pieces of a bigger puzzle which really shapes the growth model much more towards a balanced economy that draws support not just from export and investment, but increasingly from internal private consumption," Roach said.

On the environment front, the committee asked for an early establishment of a new pattern for the harmonious development between people and mother nature and the completion of a system guarding exploration, resource conservation and environmental protection.

A new epoch of economic thinking

Facing the global economy's stumbling recovery, developed and developing countries are all looking for solutions via reform.

In those circumstances, the meeting's communique, featuring comprehensive reform, will provide opportunities and dividends to other countries while, at the same time, giving them valuable experience.

Applauding the document as "extremely encouraging", World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Tuesday that, despite lower growth figures, China was continuing down the path of reform.

China's commitment to reforms of the business environment and the role of the private sector seemed very firm, Kim said.

"We expect them to perhaps grow at a slower rate, but the quality of growth we think will be better," he said.

Echoing Kim's remarks, Joergen Oerstroem Moeller, visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, noted in Copenhagen that, although confidence in the economic future was low, China could reverse that trend and spread its own confidence to other countries.

Moeller said that China is trying to find its own economic model. "If China succeeds, it may well open a new epoch of economic thinking," he said.

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