Int'l community bullish about China's accomplishing economic growth goal

BEIJING -- Foreign experts and observers are confident that China will achieve its gross domestic product (GDP) target for 2021, saying it inspires hope for global economic recovery.

China aims to expand its economy by more than 6 percent in 2021, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang at the opening of the national legislature's meeting on Friday.

China's targets of achieving over 6-percent GDP growth and creating more than 11 million new urban jobs were viable, as China was the only major economy with positive growth in 2020, said Dr. G. Weerasinghe, general secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka.

Along with the Belt and Road Initiative and trade agreements signed with its partners, "China is poised to achieve its growth and employment targets," Dr. Weerasinghe added.

Similarly, Alexander Lomanov, deputy director at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said China's GDP growth target of "more than 6 percent" for 2021 can be surely attained.

The GDP target was made out of "caution and political modesty" and there is a consensus that the growth rate is likely to be higher than 6 percent this year, Lomanov said.

China can achieve sustainable economic development in decades to come, which will also benefit the rest of the world, the scholar added.

Calling China's GDP growth target a modest but crucial projection, Cavince Adhere, a China-Africa relations expert based in Kenya, said it inspires hope for global economic recovery, given that China is a veritable engine of global growth, accounting for 17 percent of the global economy.

By prioritizing the development of new business models such as international e-commerce, China will make more robust cross-border trade possible, creating opportunities across the world, he said.

"This will further contribute to global economic recovery, poverty reduction and actualization of other development goals as codified in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," the expert said.

As the world's second-biggest economy and a consumer market of 1.4 billion people, China, with its stunning economic revival in 2020 and continued growth this year, serves as an inspiration to other economies worldwide to overcome recessions, said Wilson Lee Flores, a columnist for the English-language daily The Philippine Star.