What China's new economic pivot means for the world

* The just-concluded Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2024, which ran from Tuesday to Friday, spotlighted China's accelerating high-quality development, drawing keen attention and great anticipation from Asia and beyond.

* In the face of mounting uncertainty and pressure in the international landscape, China remains a leading economic engine among major economies with a 5.2-percent growth last year.

* Innovation in China is on the rise indeed. With sustained double-digit growth in R&D investment, China's national innovation index ranked 10th in the world in 2023, up three slots from a year before.

* China is leading in many green technologies. In the long run, China's progress in green technology could help tackle the climate challenges.

This photo taken on Feb. 17, 2024 shows a Chinese-built photovoltaic power plant in Mymensingh District, Bangladesh. [Xinhua]

by Xinhua writer Liu Bowei

BOAO, China -- On a flat ground in the Mymensingh district in north-central Bangladesh, some 169,000 solar panels are laid in rows, converting sunrays into electrical power.

Now, the 50 MW photovoltaic power plant serves as an epitome of Bangladesh's booming green power development, as the South Asian country has announced the decision to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

"Now electricity is being generated from sunlight," Md Nasir Uddin, a local villager, told Xinhua. "Many of our sons, daughters, and relatives are working in this power plant, it has benefited us greatly."

A microcosm of cooperation and common development among Asian nations, this green project built with Chinese investment offers a glimpse into the fruition of China's long-standing commitment to win-win cooperation and high-quality development.

The just-concluded Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2024, which ran from Tuesday to Friday, spotlighted China's accelerating high-quality development, drawing keen attention and great anticipation from Asia and beyond.

SUSTAINED GROWTH

China is advancing Chinese modernization on all fronts with high-quality development, which will inject strong impetus into the world economy and provide more opportunities for the development of all countries, especially neighbors in Asia, said China's top legislator Zhao Leji in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the annual event on Thursday, conveying inspiring views on how China's high-quality development will promote global prosperity.

In the face of mounting uncertainty and pressure in the international landscape, China remains a leading economic engine among major economies with a 5.2-percent growth last year, sending a clear signal that its economy has been recovering with further steady growth ahead.

"Last year, China by itself contributed around one-third of global growth," Steven Alan Barnett, senior resident representative in China of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told a panel discussion on China's economic outlook at the forum.

This photo taken on March 28, 2024 shows the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024 in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. [Xinhua/Guo Cheng]

"If we look at the indirect impact, our research also shows that for every one percentage point faster in China's growth, that raises on average the level of GDP in other economies in the medium term by about 0.3 percentage," said Barnett.

The figure underscored that strong sustainable growth in China is also good for the world economy at large, the IMF official added.

"As the global manufacturing hub and the stabilizer of global value chains, China's economic growth is essential to help boost the global economy," Kin Phea, director general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, a think tank under the Royal Academy of Cambodia, told Xinhua ahead the forum.

Dino Otranto, CEO of Australia's iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, also expressed optimism about China's sustainable growth. "China's economic development has made it a key player in the global economy which we believe will continue to shape global economic growth and technological innovation in the years to come," said Otranto.

HIGH TECH, HIGH QUALITY

"There are many notable signs that China is switching its economy from high-speed growth to high-quality growth, and it is encouraging new quality productive forces to boost and transform into a more innovation-driven, balanced, inclusive, green and open development," Ban Ki-moon, former UN secretary-general and now chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, told Xinhua.

Making strides in new quality productive forces, which feature high-tech, high efficiency, and high quality, is high on China's agenda this year. Observers hailed the strategy as not only injecting a strong impetus into the Chinese economy but also creating greater opportunities for global growth and offering more chances for cooperation in various fields.

"It will drive the Chinese economy and the entire Asian region toward a more efficient, intelligent, green, and open direction, promoting economic structural adjustments and technological innovation in various countries, and achieving sustainable and high-quality economic growth," said Ip Kuai Peng, pro-rector of the City University of Macau.

An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 23, 2024 shows vehicles to be exported and a ro-ro ship at Dongdu port area in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. [Xinhua/Jiang Kehong]

Innovation in China is on the rise indeed. With sustained double-digit growth in R&D investment, China's national innovation index ranked 10th in the world in 2023, up three slots from a year before.

The dynamic environment is accelerating the emergence of new growth drivers.

In 2023 alone, despite a global economic downturn, China's exports of the tech-intensive green trio -- lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic products, and new energy vehicles -- amounted to 1.06 trillion yuan (149 billion U.S. dollars), a robust increase of 29.9 percent year-on-year.

China has also made significant progress in various sectors such as new energy, high-speed rail, new materials and artificial intelligence, leading to vigorous growth in related industries and products.

"A key opportunity we see for China in this space is the energy transition ... China is leading the world in this respect through its exponential rollout of wind and solar," said Otranto, noting Australia sees this as an opportunity to enhance collaboration with China.

"Already, we are exploring a range of options to reduce emissions in the steel value chain, including through partnerships with Chinese suppliers, customers and research institutes," he said.

GREENER FUTURE

"When I arrived at Haikou airport, I was driven in an electric car to the Boao forum. When I got up in the morning to come to the forum, I was again driven by an electric car ... I've seen the efforts by the forum to reduce carbon for the conference itself," Tim Wilkinson, ambassador at large and special envoy office of the President Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told Xinhua on the sidelines of the BFA.

As global awareness of climate change and ensuing consequences has surged in recent years, immediate action in this regard across the world is more imperative than ever, a call echoed by international climate negotiators, scientists, and enterprises at the Boao forum.

This photo taken on Sept. 13, 2023 shows an offshore wind farm in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province. [Xinhua/Yang Qing]

The climate is universal and transcends all borders, thus the world has to collaborate and is collaborating, said Wilkinson.

China is leading in many green technologies. In the long run, China's progress in green technology could help tackle the climate challenges. There has been a growing adoption of electric vehicles because China has been able to make them at relatively cheaper prices, said Prakash Kumar Shrestha, chief of the Nepali central bank's economic research department.

"China has to be complimented on its success in introducing products and technologies that are addressing the serious problem of climate change," Bernardo M. Villegas, economist and professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, said in a written interview.

"By exporting these products to emerging markets, its contribution to a greener world will be even enhanced," Villegas added.

Xinhua reporters Zhong Qun, Zhou Huimin, Chen Ziwei, and Luo Jiang in Haikou, Wu Changwei in Phnom Penh, Li Guangtao and Zhang Dongqiang in Yangon, Liang Youchang in Sydney, Lu Rui and Feng Yasong in Seoul, Guo Yuqi in Macao, Wang Yi, Mao Pengfei and Cheng Yiheng in Kuala Lumpur, Gao Bo in Bangkok, Zhang Yisheng and Liu Kai in Manila also contributed to the story

Video reporters: Zheng Xin, Li Duojiang, Zhao Yuhe, Guo Liangchuan, Mei Yuanlong, Jiang Sai; video editors: Lin Lin, Li Qin, Yin Le, Liu Yutian