On March 24th , Consul General Tang Zhongdong published signed article on Business Day under the title Focusing on High-quality Development and High-standard Opening up.
The full text is as follows:
The first session of the 14th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C) and the first session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (hereinafter referred to as the Two Sessions) were held in Beijing in early March 2023. The Two Sessions successfully elected the new national leaders. Xi Jinping was unanimously elected President of the P.R.C and signed a presidential decree appointing Li Qiang as Premier of the State Council. The Two Sessions fully affirmed the work of the State Council in the past year, adopted the 2022 Government Work Report, and agreed to the overall requirements, main objectives, policy directions and key tasks for economic and social development in 2023 as proposed in the report. The personnel adjustment of the national leadership and the planning of policy objectives at the two sessions fully reflect the stability and continuity of the government team under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.
The agendas of the Two sessions and the Government Work Report demonstrate that “high-quality development” and “high-standard opening up" are the priorities that China is currently working on. China’s high-quality development and high-level opening up not only are conducive to the basic realization of socialist modernization by 2035, but also provide vast development opportunities for all countries in the world, including South Africa.
I.Solidly and effectively promoting high-quality development
Since the 20th National Congress of the CPC, China’s development has stood at a new historical ground. At the same time, it has also entered a period where strategic opportunities and challenges are co-existing and uncertainties are increasing. At present, China’s economy ranks the second in the world, but imbalances and inadequacies in development remains a prominent problem. The current development is more focused on “is it developing or not”, while at the next stage more attention should be paid to “how well is it developing”, that is, the quality of development. High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country. As President Xi Jinping said, “In the new journey of building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation, China must unswervingly promote high-quality development. We must implement the new development concept completely, accurately and comprehensively, and accelerate the construction of the new development pattern”.
As can be seen from the Government Work Report, high-quality development has been a prominent outcome of the State Council’s work since the 19th National Congress of the CPC. First, China’s economic development has reached a new level. In 2022, China’s GDP increased to 121 trillion RMB (equal to 18 trillion US dollars), with an average annual growth rate of 5.2% over five years, which indicates that China’s economy is moving towards high-quality development on the basis of medium-to-high speed growth. Second, the task of poverty eradication was successfully completed. Nearly 100 million impoverished rural population in China were lifted out of poverty. Third, breakthroughs were made in core technologies in areas such as manned spaceflight, supercomputers, quantum information, artificial intelligence and biomedicine, and the contribution of technological progress to economic growth exceeded 60%. Fourth, the eco-environment has improved significantly. Energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 8.1%, and carbon dioxide emissions fell by 14.1%. Fifth, people’s living standards continued to upgrade. The per capita disposable income grew at an average annual rate of 5.1%, and the basic old-age insurance covered 1.05 billion population. In the future, the Chinese government will continue to implement proactive fiscal policies, optimize tax and fee reduction policies, and promote employment and consumption. China will take effective measures to encourage digital economy, private economy, FDI, rural revitalization and green transformation. China will reinforce its input in education, housing, health-care and social security so as to further raise people’s living standards. All these measures are effectively incorporating the requirements of high-quality development into the policy planning of all industries and sectors.
High-quality development is a breakthrough from the old mentality of “make judgments according to GDP growth rate”. It emphasizes more on the quality of economic development and the people’s sense of gain and happiness alongside certain growth rate. The newly-appointed Premier Mr. Li Qiang elaborated this new philosophy at the recent press conference, “The vast majority of our people will not care how much GDP has increased, but they are more concerned about their specific daily issues like housing, employment, income, education, health care, and ecological environment, so the government work should be focused on the people’s actual feelings and expectations”.
II. Steadfastly promoting high-standard opening up
In recent years, the world is witnessing accelerated global changes of a magnitude unseen in a century, the far-reaching impact of the once-in-a-century pandemic, the rise of anti-globalization, unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism, and the manifestation of geopolitical crises. Thus the risks to the China’s economic development have continued to increase.
Facing these challenges, China will never close its doors to protect itself. Instead it will be more determined to follow the path of opening up to the outside world. The Chinese government will consider both domestic and external situations in a coordinated way and build an open economy of a higher standard. China will promote high-standard opening up and accelerate efforts to foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows. As President Xi Jinping emphasized, “China’s development benefits the world, and it cannot be separated from the world. We must solidly promote high-standard opening up to the outside world, utilizing the global market and resources to develop ourselves while promoting common development in the world”.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the policy of Reform and Opening up which has been the key move that transformed contemporary China. Reform and Opening up remains the key move that will determine the achievement of the two Centenary Goals and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. No matter what changes occur in the world, China’s resolution to reform and open up will not waver. The door of China will only be opened wider and wider.
In recent years, China has continued to make progresses in opening up to the outside world. China has actively improved the environment for business and investment by implementing a series of liberalization initiatives in investment, trade, finance and mobility of labor. Besides the introduction of 21 free trade pilot zones, it is accelerating the construction of a world-class free trade port with Chinese characteristics in Hainan Province. By formally signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and actively promoting its accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), China has continued to expand its global network of high-standard free trade zones. China has also actively promoted the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative and successfully held the China International Import Expo for 5 consecutive years, with more than 2,800 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions attending last year. In 2022, China’s actual use of FDI reached a record high of US$189.13 billion, demonstrating that China remains a leading destination for global investment .
As State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang put it, “China will aim for open development, promote high-quality domestic development and high-standard opening up to the outside world, oppose decoupling and chain-breaking and unilateral sanctions, safeguard an open and inclusive world economy, and provide new opportunities for the world through China’s new development”.
III. China’s development and opening up will contribute to the common development of all countries in the world
As China’s modern industrial system evolves, China will provide the world with more and better products made and created in China, as well as a larger-scale market. China will firmly support and help the majority of developing countries to accelerate their development towards industrialization and modernization. China will provide Chinese solutions and Chinese strength to narrow the gap between the North and the South and achieve common development.
China has been the top contributor to world economic growth for many consecutive years. According to the latest World Bank report, China’s average contribution to global economic growth reached 38.6% between 2013 and 2021. In 2022 China’s total value of import and export of goods increased by 7.7% year-on-year and exceeded 6 trillion US dollars for the first time, making it the world’s No.1 goods trading country in the sixth consecutive year. China is the No.1 trading partner of the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), and its import and export volume with African countries increased by 14.5%.
Looking ahead to 2023, the world economic growth is likely to continue the downward trend seen in 2022. In January, the IMF forecast that world economic growth rate would drop to 2.9% in 2023 and warned that countries accounting for more than a third of global economic output would suffer economic contraction. The expected target for China’s economic growth in 2023 is 5%, which is well above that of world economy over the same period.
The “high-quality development” and “high-standard opening up” highlighted by the Two Sessions will provide African countries, including South Africa, with even greater opportunities for development. South Africa and China have always enjoyed a special friendship of “comrades plus brothers”. The two countries have been supporting each other and working closely in the field of economic development. In 2022, China-South Africa trade volume grew by 5% to 56.7 billion US dollars, a record high in recent years. China has been South Africa’s largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years, and South Africa has been China’s largest trading partner in Africa for 13 consecutive years. The implementation of the Nine Programs of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has been accelerated in South Africa. South Africa is also one of the largest investment destinations for Chinese enterprises in Africa, with total Chinese investment exceeding 25 billion US dollars by the end of 2021. China recently listed South Africa as one of the first destinations of resuming outbound group tours, which is highly anticipated by most people in South Africa.
IV. Gauteng and Free State will further benefit from China-South Africa cooperation
The consular district of the Consulate General of China in Johannesburg covers the provinces of Gauteng (excluding Tshwane) and Free State, and one of the Consulate General’s priorities is to promote exchanges and cooperation between provincial and municipal governments of the two countries in economic, cultural and educational fields. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa, a number of sister provinces or cities have been fostered between Beijing and Gauteng, Jiangsu/Jiangxi and Free State, Shanghai and Johannesburg, Nanjing and Bloemfontein, as well as Harbin and Ekurhuleni. In accordance with the Two Sessions’ guidelines on diplomatic work, the Consulate General will promote exchanges and interactions between the above provinces and cities in an orderly manner and restore them to the pre-pandemic level as soon as possible. In his 2023 State of the Province Address, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi proposes to address the energy crisis and improve the living conditions of the people in townships. Likewise, China has accumulated valuable experience in energy transformation and rural revitalization. The Consulate General is willing to help exchange and share the experience with relevant officials in Gauteng and encourage the participation of qualified Chinese companies in the implementation of new energy projects and livelihood infrastructure projects. Before the pandemic, hundreds of students from Free State were studying in universities in China, which constituted an important part of the people-people exchanges between China and South Africa. The Consulate General is willing to further strengthen cooperation in the field of education, encourage more students from Free State to study in China, and promote the understanding of China among the students through the “Driving Education Culture” projects. Free State is also an important agricultural province. The Consulate General will assist it in cooperating with the relevant entities in China regarding agricultural technology, personnel training and experimental research.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa, the crucial year of South Africa’s chairmanship of the BRICS, and the opening year following the 20th Congress of the CPC and the 55th Congress of the ANC, which is of extraordinary significance to both countries and parties. We firmly believe that under the leadership of President Xi and President Ramaphosa, China and South Africa will not only be able to achieve the policy objectives set out in their respective Government Reports and State of the Nation Address, but will also be able to enhance the China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership to new historical heights and create more tangible benefits for the peoples of our two countries.