For Schuette, the discussion about growth rates is not that important, as he said quality mattered more.
"I hope to see more quality growth which also takes care of employment issues and better provision of products and services to consumers."
"I feel that we should somehow forget about the slowdown, which could be quite good and healthy for the economy," he said.
Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., agreed with Schuette.
"If you want sustainable growth, environmentally safe, producing high jobs, you have to accept a low goal," he said.
"We welcome a moderate slowdown in China because current investment levels are unsustainably high," said Zhu Min, Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund. China's economic rebalancing will have a significant long-term impact on many countries.
The overall sentiment at the forum was that China's economy remains on the right track in supporting a slow but steady global recovery. But there was talk of plenty of risks ahead for China, including pollution, local government debt and increasing income disparity.
"If you don't address the issue of some people being too wealthy while other people languish in poverty, then that would be very detrimental to the development of society," said Gao Xiqing, President of China Investment Corp..
Eye-catching reform
China's ongoing reform agenda will help boost the global economy, said experts at the forum.
China's new leadership pledged the boldest reforms since the Deng Xiaoping era at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in November 2013 in Beijing. A new round of reforms will cover political, economic, cultural, social and ecological fields. More than 300 major reform measures were announced, covering 15 categories in more than 60 fields.
Participants at Davos analyzed how those reforms would reshape China's future, and the future of the world economy at large.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China's consumption-driven growth has brought about huge benefits to the world and will continue to do so.
"Chinese people's strong purchasing power has led to global market prosperity. For instance, Chinese people bought 21 million units of cars in 2013, over 25 percent of total global auto sales. Chinese imports are getting close to $2 trillion."
Not only are Chinese people good buyers, they are good investors, said Wang.
"When the global real economy is facing much difficulty in attracting funding, Chinese companies have become a new leading force in overseas investment. In 2013, Chinese companies' overseas investment in the non-financial sector exceeded $90 billion," Wang said.
Wang said China will provide the world with more "Chinese opportunities" in development as it is embracing a new round of comprehensive reforms. Chinese opportunities comprise market opportunities, investment opportunities, growth opportunities and cooperation opportunities. "China has every confidence in the success of its reform," he said.
Schuette said the reform will result in fairer competition in the country. "Consumers in China will be better off thanks to tougher competition in the market. Overall we have learned from around the world that if you want to have excellent companies in your country, you have to have a lot of competition," he said.
Companies aiming to exploit favorable labor costs in China would find themselves on the wrong footing, said Schuette. "China is no longer the low-cost country that it was 10 years ago."
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