BEIJING: China is ready to advance its “dual circulation” strategy and boost growth under the new development paradigm by accelerating economic transition, fostering greener growth and nurturing greater opening-up, experts and industrial insiders said.

       Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development (CIRD), said that while the Covid-19 pandemic is still rampaging globally, China is and will continue to be the market with the hugest potential.

       The country’s new development paradigm – in which the domestic market is the mainstay and the domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other – will be fuelled by its market and consumption potential, Chi said while addressing the China in Building a New Development Paradigm and the World forum over the weekend in Haikou, Hainan province.

       The forum was co-hosted by the CIRD, the Bank of China, China Daily and China Public Diplomacy Association.

       Noting that China is currently in a critical stage of economic transition and upgrading, and estimates about its market potential are varied, Chi said that the country’s industrial structural adjustment is expected to generate enormous market potential and its consumption momentum will remain strong.

       The purchasing managers index for China’s manufacturing sector came in at 49.2 in October, down from 49.6 in September, according to National Bureau of Statistics figures released on Sunday.

       However, Chi said that with the country’s socioeconomic transformation and upgrading, the room for household service consumption growth is huge.

       He estimated that by 2022, China will become the world’s largest retail market, with total retail sales reaching US$6.06 trillion (RM25.12 trillion).

       He also estimated that by 2025, China’s producer services are expected to account for 40% of total GDP, up from the current 30%.

       Yesterday marks the 30th anniversary of the China Institute for Reform and Development.

       Founded on Nov 1, 1991, the public research institution has, as Martin Raiser, World Bank country director for China, South Korea and Mongolia, put it, “played a really important role in China’s reform and opening-up”.

       Raiser said at the forum that if China succeeds in shifting domestic demand toward consumption while sustaining the economic growth rate in the 4% to 5% range in the next decade, Chinese consumers can become the locomotive of the world economy.

       Domestically, greener growth is expected to fuel the country’s consumption in a healthier and more sustainable manner.

       Liu Lian’ge, the Bank of China chairman, told the forum that China is actively taking multi-pronged approaches on energy, production, consumption and the financial front to advance the country’s green transition in social and economic development. — China Daily/ANN