Forum told: Forge ahead despite difficulties
China should maintain the courage and innovation adopted 40 years ago when it began the process of reform and opening up to the outside world, although both the internal and external environment were complicated, according to participants at the Fudan Chief Economists Forum over the weekend.
“China’s reform and opening up began with the debate of whether practice is the only criterion to test the truth, and we got the correct answer,” said Li Yining, the renowned economist, now 88, who proposed the setting up of a shareholding system for Chinese companies.
“Afterward, we have taken a basket of reforms on key issues like ownership of state assets and prices, it is like a comprehensive operation, which released the potential of the Chinese economy and eventually put the country's growth on a fast track,” Li said.
Over the past four decades, China’s gross domestic product grew from 364 billion yuan (US$52.5 billion) to 82.7 trillion yuan in 2017, with GDP per capita surging to US$9,000 from just US$155.
Back in 1978, there were no Chinese companies strong enough to compete on the global stage, but today more than 150 are among the Fortune Global 500.
“We get strength from our political system, which can concentrate resources while leaders are determined. And we benefit from promoting equality and laws,” said 89-year-old Gao Shangquan, another economist who contributed greatly to the country’s economic reforms.
But at a time to applaud China's achievements over the past 40 years, the country has to brave today’s economic complexity concerning trade disputes, a bearish stock market performance and a moderating growth rate.
In the third quarter of this year, China’s economy grew 6.5 percent from a year earlier, lower than the 6.7 percent in the second quarter and the first three months' 6.8 percent, sitting at its lowest level since the 2008 global financial crisis.
At the same time, China’s stock markets continued to fall in the past few months, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index hovering around 2,500 points, not much better than that of a decade ago when the world was distorted by the financial crisis.
“We should learn from the past, which was far more difficult than where we are today, to continue our journey of reform and opening up,” said Zhang Jun, dean of the School of Economics at Fudan University.
Zhu Jian, president of Aijian Securities Co, said China’s stock market should nurture more self-motivated growth power, instead of being heavily affected by external factors.
Lu Ying, director of the research institute under Haitong Securities Co, said a healthy stock market should base itself on sustainable growth in the real economy, not in sectors such as property.
On the trade dispute with the United States, China’s former commerce minister Chen Deming said the world needed better governance to fix such a problem.