On the Right Track

The world is struggling through an unprecedented financial crisis and China is making its due contributions By Zhou Xiaoyan

On the Right Track

The world is struggling through an unprecedented financial crisis and China is making its due contributions By Zhou Xiaoyan

HUANG JINGWEN

As the euro zone sovereign debt crisis continues to cast a pall over the global economy, more collaboration was widely called for at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2012.

The forum, also known as the Summer Davos, was held from September 11 to 13 in the north Chinese port city of Tianjin and was the sixth forum of its kind held in China.Under the theme Creating the Future Economy, the threeday event featured interactive programs on issues including the euro crisis and China’s future economy.

Risks are decreasing in the euro zone’s fiscal and monetary systems, as well as in its financial markets, but the risks to economic growth are rising, said Zhu Min,Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Because Europe is one of the world’s largest economies and accounts for one third of value-added exports to Asia,a deteriorating European economy will have a huge impact globally.

In the worst-case scenario, further disaster in Europe could lead to a 1.5-2 percent growth cut in the United States and a 1-1.5 percent cut in China, according to IMF predictions, said Zhu.

While Europe buckles under a mountain of debt, the U.S. economy has been struggling with its recovery, many at the forum in Tianjin looked to China to prop up the global economy.

The fi rst priority of China should be to sustain growth, said Zhu. Its stable growth will immensely bene fi t the world and have a spillover effect in Asia, the United States and elsewhere. While sustaining growth,China should never forget how important structural reforms are to its own economy,Zhu added.

Contributions

At the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Davos, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao summarized China’s achievements over the past 10 years.

From 2002 to 2011, China’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 10.7 percent and moved from the world’s sixth largest economy to the number two spot behind the United States. Per-capita GDP rose from around $1,000 to $5,432. China’s foreign trade volume is now the second largest globally and foreign exchange reserves exceed $3 trillion, said Wen.

Economic structures were improved to raise the quality and efficiency of the country’s development.A shift from fast growth to sound growth was a fundamental change in the priorities of China’s development in the past decade.Strategic adjustments in China’s economy were made in an effort to shift the country’s growth model while bolstering development, Wen said.

As global economic woes have continued to weigh heavily on China,the Chinese economy expanded 7.8 percent during the fi rst half of the year after the government moved to counter inflation and surging property prices.

The 7.8-percent growth, though lower than in previous periods, still outperformed other major economies.

Wang Yiming, Vice President of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the slowdown does not necessarily mean diminishing economic strength or business opportunities in China since the country’s economic aggregate is now larger and more solid than before.

Appeals

While making its due contributions to the global economy, China, the world’s largest developing country, called for more global support at Summer Davos.

China has already made major contributions to the world economy and global stability,and yet it is facing increasing trade protectionism, a common measure amid recession, said Xiao Lian, an expert on economic studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“If developed countries continue their protectionism and discriminatory regulations,China’s economic slowdown will eventually threaten the development of the whole world,” said Xiao.

In July, Germany’s solar energy company,SolarWorld, and several European enterprises launched an anti-dumping probe with the European Commission against Chinese solar power companies, alleging that Chinese fi rms were selling products in European markets at prices lower than at home, thereby threatening to run European companies out of business.

The EU announced on September 6 that it would launch a 15-month investigation into imports of solar panels and key components from China and may impose provisional antidumping duties within nine months.

The case is the largest trade dispute in trade volume involving China. The EU has been the biggest importer of China’s solar products. In 2011, the EU imported photovoltaic (PV) cells worth of $20.4 billion from China, about 73 percent of the total export during the period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

At the forum, Chinese solar panel makers made their voices heard, calling for freer trade and open collaboration with foreign competitors.

The anti-dumping investigation by EU enterprises has stood in the way of solar energy becoming cheaper around the globe, said Gao Jifan, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar,a leading solar company in China.

Gao was quite con fi dent the trade friction between China and the EU would be resolved through negotiation and further dialogue.

Gao added that China should intensify efforts to explore the domestic market to expand its PV industry. China should not only be the largest PV maker but also its largest consumer. China’s solar energy industry will see more opportunities through 2020 as new solar energy-oriented systems are being formed, Gao said.

Challenges

Amid global economic chaos, China’s manufacturing sector is losing its competitiveness as global investment shifts to lower-cost countries.

The sector is facing a choice: maintaining the traditional competitiveness of low-end manufacturing or striving for high-end innovation.

At a televised debate called The Next Manufacturing Frontier at the forum, all fi ve panelists believed China’s future in manufacturing belonged to producing high-end goods.

Xu Heyi, Chairman of Beijing Automotive Group, the country’s fi fth largest automotive group, and one of the panelists,couldn’t be surer about China’s future.

“China de fi nitely should choose the path of high-end manufacturing in a bid to transform its manufacturing sector,” said Xu.

“High-end has two meanings—high-end products and the high-end of the industrial chain.For instance, a large portion of the iPad and iP-hone was made in Guangdong Province. But that was the lowest-end of the production chain—the assembly part,” said Xu.

If China’s manufacturing sector wishes to further develop, it must insist on a more highend strategy with more innovation. For the auto-making industry, joint venture brands have occupied the Chinese market while China’s self-owned auto brands are seeing a declining market share. This is a huge challenge for China, said Xu.

HOT DEBATE: A panel of experts participates in a discussion entitled Demystifying Asia’s Entrepreneurs at the 2012 Summer Davos in Tianjin on September 11