On July 11, Chinese Consul General in Johannesburg Tang Zhongdong published signed article on Business Day titled The Stably Improving Economy of China Brings Benefits to the World.

The full text is as follows:

The 14th Summer Davos Forum was held successfully in Tianjin, China, in which economists and entrepreneurs shared their insight on the development of China and the world. Li Qiang, Chinese Premier of the State Council, said in his opening remark that China’s economy was clearly rebounding and will achieve the expected growth target of around 5% for this year. In a longer term, China will continue to provide strong momentum for the world economic recovery and growth.

I.China’s economy is stably improving with stronger growth momentum

Despite facing a more severe and complex international economic situation, the long-term positive fundamentals of China’s economy have not changed, and its characteristics of strong resilience, high potential and wide space remain obvious. Given the resumption of normal life after Covid, the Chinese government have adopted effective macro policies to fully revitalize China’s economy and steadily advance high-quality development.

First, the driving effect of consumption and investment is remarkable. Since January, the Chinese authorities have actively introduced policies to promote consumption, enhance residents’ willingness to consume, and gradually release the consumption potential of China’s super-sized middle class. In the first quarter, the contribution of final consumption expenditure to economic growth reached 66.6%. From January to May, the total retail volumes of consumer goods increased by 9.3% year-on-year, the film industry revenue increased by over 40%, and the catering industry revenue increased by 22.6%. Meanwhile, local governments were making efforts in expanding investment in all fields. From January to May, the total fixed investment rose by 4%, while the infrastructural investment and the manufacturing investment rose by 7.5% and 6% respectively. Consumption and investment, like two powerful engines, are driving China’s economy to a steady recovery.

Second, the momentum of innovation-driven development continues to strengthen. This year, the Chinese government has been implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, promoting scientific self-reliance and technological self-improvement, and encouraging the trend of high-end, intelligent and green production. From January to May, the production index of information transmission, software and information technology service industry increased by 11.3%. The production of industrial control computers and systems increased by 33.4%. The production of solar battery increased by 53.6%. The production of new-energy vehicles increased by 37%, and China is expected to replace Japan as the largest automobile exporter this year. Innovation-driven development will effectively promote industrial upgrading, accelerate the formation of modern industrial system, and lay the long-term foundation for China’s economic development.

Third, the advantages of opening up to the world have become more prominent. In this year, China has been actively promoting the building of a high-standard market system, accelerating the formation of a unified national market, steadily expanding institutional opening-up, and fostering a business environment that is based on market principles, governed by rule of law and up to international standards. From January to May, China’s total import and export value of goods was 16.77 trillion yuan (2.44 trillion US dollars), up by 4.7% year-on-year, and its total import and export value with countries along the “Belt and Road” and ASEAN countries grew by 13.2% and 9.9% respectively. In terms of attracting foreign investment, from January to May, 18,532 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, up by 38.3%. China is striving to build a new development pattern that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows, thus injecting more external impetus for economic development.

II.The world is confident in China's economic outlook

Being generally optimistic about China’s economic development prospects, many foreign-invested enterprises have expressed their willingness to continue to exploit market and make investment in China and have taken practical actions to cast a “vote of confidence”. Since January, senior executives from major multinational enterprises like Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Pfizer, Starbucks, ADM, Rio Tinto, and Aramco have visited China, expressing their optimism about the Chinese market and their hope to strengthen cooperation with Chinese companies. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, admired China’s economic prosperity and said that China was both a manufacturing center and a fast-growing consumer market for Apple. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla said that Tesla was against “decoupling” between the US and China, and Tesla was willing to further expand its business in China and share the opportunities of China's development. Michael Hart, President of American Chamber of Commerce in China, said that the US-China trade reached its new height last year, and many multinational companies were interested in looking for opportunities in China because of China’s large-scale consumers.

International organizations have made higher expectations as well on China’s economic growth. The World Bank released its latest Global Economic Prospects Report in June, raising its growth forecast for China to 5.6% this year, 1.3% points higher that its forecast in January. The OECD raised its forecast to 5.4%. The United Nations released its mid-year report “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023” in May, raising its growth forecast to 5.3% from 4.8% previously. The IMF expected China’s economy to grow by 5.2% this year and to act as the engine of growth for the Asia-Pacific region and the global economy.

III.China's economic development benefits the whole world including South Africa

Over the past decade, China has been an important source of impetus for the steady growth of the world economy. In the past ten years, the Chinese economy grew at 6.2% on average annually. Its share in global economic output increased from 11.3% in 2012 to about 18%. China’s trade in goods ranked the top in the world for six years in a row. On average, China’s contribution to global growth was over 30%, making the country the biggest engine driving this growth.

In the past three years, China achieved an average annual growth of 4.5%, and was among the best performers of the world’s major economies. As it pursues interconnected development with other countries, China has opened up its market to the rest of the world and shared its development opportunities with all, making itself a major trading partner of over 140 countries and regions. The development has significantly improved the lives of the Chinese people, and provided people in other countries with a large amount of inexpensive quality products. China has served as an important anchor and source of impetus for free trade and stable growth in the world.

The sound development of China’s economy has positive implications for South Africa. 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. From January to May, the bilateral trade volume between China and South Africa reached US$24.04 billion, up by 18.5% year-on-year, of which South Africa’s exports to China reached US$13.43 billion, up by 19.3%. The annual bilateral trade volume is expected to certainly reach US$60 billion in 2023, a historical peak. In April, a delegation of Chinese government and enterprises attended the 5th South Africa Investment Conference and announced new investment of nearly 15 billion rands. In June, China-South Africa New Energy Investment and Cooperation Conference was successfully held, and more than 170 Chinese enterprises and local enterprises in South China achieved fruitful results in expanding new energy investment and cooperation, aiming to help South China solve the electricity crisis and realize energy transformation.

Just as Chinese Premier Li Qiang put it, China has full confidence and the ability to achieve the steady growth of the Chinese economy on the track of high-quality development in a long time to come. This will increase the size of the market, create opportunities of cooperation, and provide a consistent source of dynamism to the world economic recovery and growth as well as opportunities of win-win cooperation to investors from all countries.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa, and the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has ushered in a new chapter. China is willing to strengthen the coordination of development strategies with South Africa and enhance bilateral cooperation and exchanges in various fields. Aiming at high-quality development and putting economic and trade cooperation first, China and South Africa can promote the common development of new technologies, new industries and new models in both countries, and together achieve long-term sound and stable economic growth.