China agrees almost $100bn-worth of new BRI projects

More than 4,000 delegates from 140 nations attended the third Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing, where projects worth $97.2 billion were agreed in principle.

China announced the formation of the Global Artificial Intelligence Governance (GAIG) Initiative, which will focus on creating a level playing field between nations when it comes to the development and roll-out of AI.

In addition to the AI initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled seven new strategic objectives at the Forum. These are:

• Europe-Asia Logistics Corridor – aligning the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the EU’s ‘Global Gateway’ programme, emphasising collaboration over rivalry.
• Silk Road E-Commerce Zone – updating the digital platform to improve trade, revising existing treaties to match current technological needs.
• Financial commitment – an extra $47.8 billion to be invested in the economy by Chinese banks.
• Green development focus – prioritizing sustainable investments in co-operation with the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) and in line with China’s environmental objectives.
• Cultural exchanges and tourism – to develop more cross-border tourism, especially with Central Asia and the Middle East.
• Transparency and sustainability – promoting transparency, focusing on sustainable technologies, and ensuring overseas investments complies with the relevant standards.
• BRI Institutions Formation – to create a centralized BRI institution to help foreign investors be aware of potential opportunities within the BRI framework.

To help achieve these objectives, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each provide funding of $48 billion. The state-backed Silk Road Fund will contribute an additional $11 billion.

 

China well-placed to continue to grow economy

China’s economy is set to achieve its 2023 growth target, with growth set to continue in 2024, according to a leading Chinese economist.

Pan Jiancheng, a former macro-economist at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said he was upbeat about China’s economic development in the fourth quarter of 2023, saying the economy is set to meet its growth target of around 5% this year.

The Chinese government has unveiled a series of pro-growth measures since August, and they are starting to pay off, Pan said in an interview with the Xinhua news agency.

His view is backed up by the latest data from the NBS, which shows the country’s economy grew 5.2% year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2023.

“This growth amounts to an annual GDP rise of $877.5 billion, and if calculated at constant prices, it is equivalent to an annual GDP output increase of around 10% ten years ago,” said Pan.

He added that as the economy’s size continues to expand, a downshifting from high growth rates to medium or relatively low growth rates is normal. He said he expected “moderate growth as long as China’s economic aggregate maintains steady expansion”.

Affected by the pandemic, as well as changes in the domestic economic structure and global economic landscape, China’s economic growth has shown fluctuations over the past three years, but it remains a main engine for global economic recovery and its long-term fundamentals are sound, Pan said.

He noted that the country “still has ample policy space to boost economic growth and handle challenges”. He pointed to the fact that the ratio of China’s central government debt to overall government debt remained low compared with other countries, enabling China to further increase its deficit to boost consumption.

Pan cited multiple factors that he predicts will drive China’s long-term development, including its vast domestic market, growing talent pool, ongoing urbanization, developing entrepreneurship and, most of all, the country staying committed to reform and opening up.

“As the world’s second-largest economy and largest developing country, China remaining committed to reform and opening up as well as economic globalization will make it an important engine driving global economic recovery,” Pan said.

“China’s comprehensively deepening reform will contribute more to the stable, orderly and sustainable development of the world economy.”