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The proportion of China's international trade in its GDP will drop to around 25 percent in the next decade or more as the nation's economic output relies less on the global markets, an influential Chinese economist said on Saturday.

"We must further promote the market-oriented development of the production factor to form a high-standard factor system. Most of the production of components and raw materials will be completed domestically while our products still cover the global market," Huang Qifan, the former mayor of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, said at the 6th Fudan Chief Economists Forum held on Saturday.

China's trade to GDP ratio was 34.507 percent in 2020, a slight decline from 35.837 percent in 2019, data from the World Bank showed.

Latest figures released by the customs authority showed that in the first eight months of this year, China's foreign trade of goods fell by 0.6 percent year-on-year to 20.05 trillion yuan ($3.1 trillion), narrowing by 1.1 percentage points compared with the decrease in the first seven months.

As the mainstay of internal circulation, the proportion of domestic consumption will gradually lift from the current 42 percent to more than 50 percent, Huang noted, adding that China will also promote a greater degree of opening-up.

Official policy that targets the domestic market as the mainstay while letting internal and external markets boost each other, the model of "dual circulation" has become China's new economic development strategy. 

China is rebalancing its economy from an export- and investment-driven one toward more focus on domestic demand.

"We may achieve the goal of doubling the 400 million middle-income people by 2035," Huang noted as the nation is pursuing the "common prosperity" drive, which will further lift China's leadership in the world.

The development agenda which includes the principle of "common prosperity" should be realized through three distribution methods - the first focuses on efficiency, the second takes into account both efficiency and fairness, and the third relies on morality instead of on coercion, according to Huang.

Global Times