World gets message that China is back on road to recovery
- Premier Li Qiang leaves Tianjin audience in no doubt that winning back foreign investors is a priority and the country will continue to open up
The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions is sometimes called the summer Davos after the more illustrious original Swiss forum. This year’s gathering of more than 1,500 participants, in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, assumed greater significance as the first since Covid-19 isolation and distancing measures broke the cycle.
What also set it apart, to use the words of keynote speaker Premier Li Qiang, is that it convened as the world stood at a global economic and geopolitical crossroads. Li left his audience in no doubt about how China saw the way ahead, in the face of the Western narrative of “de-risking”, seen as an euphemism for the problematic concept of decoupling.
As Western readings of mainland economic statistics portray a faltering recovery from the pandemic, China’s priority is to win back the confidence of foreign investors and to embolden entrepreneurs to reignite their appetite for risk and animal spirits, both dampened by the zero-Covid policy.
That is the same message Li spread to government officials and businessmen on his recent overseas visit – to key European trade partners Germany and France – since becoming premier.
Premier plays up China’s economic outlook, hits out at West over ‘de-risking’
To that end China, needs to convince the outside world it really is opening up and accepts that improved access to overseas markets is a two-way street. In that regard, policy certainty and predictability are paramount.
Despite the size of its market and consumer spending power, China is no exception to the rule that uncertainty is detrimental to investment sentiment.
Amid predictions that the economy is going downward, China needs to send out a positive, confidence-building message. Positive takeaways from Li’s speech included stronger economic growth in the second quarter than the first’s 4.5 per cent, putting the target for the year of around 5 per cent within reach.
China’s economic recovery is on the right track, and Beijing looks to deliver on its economic targets for the year.
Enterprises should make decisions for themselves at a time of economic challenges, and the government should not stand in the way by politicising problems.
The New Champions title of the three-day meeting – the 14th summer Davos – reflects focus on a search in the past for new growth sectors for China. Perhaps the three-year disruption of the normal cycle by the pandemic had a bit to do with this year’s agenda being spoiled for a range of ideas. But that served to highlight the premier’s abiding message of welcome to foreign investors and entrepreneurs.
