Recently, Brunei’s newspaper Borneo Bulletin, United Daily, Sin Chew Daily and See Hua Daily published the article entitled Continuous Development of China Creates New Opportunities for the World by H. E. Mr. Xiao Jianguo, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Brunei Darussalam. The full text is as follows:
Looking back at 2023, the world economy is struggling to grow amid turbulence, with geopolitical conflicts intensifying and protectionism and unilateralism on the rise, and the global economy is still facing multiple challenges in the future. In the face of an unusually complex international environment and the challenging task of reform and development and ensuring stability at home, China has successfully accomplished the main goals and tasks for economic and social development in 2023, injecting more stability and positive energy into the recovery and development of the world economy.
Chinese economy is showing strong momentum. When looking at China's economy, data is the most convincing. Longitudinally, in 2023, China's GDP exceeded RMB 126 trillion, growing by 5.2percent. The economic increment surpassed RMB 6 trillion, equivalent to the annual GDP of a medium-sized country. Foreign exchange reserves exceeded 3.2 trillion US dollars, and per capita disposable income of residents increased by 6.1 percent, indicating a continuous strengthening of momentum for economic recovery and growth. Horizontally, China's economic growth rate in 2023 ranked among the top of the world's major economies, contributing more than 30% ofglobal growth for over a decade, and continuing to be the largest engine for global growth. On January 30th, 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report thatraised its growth expectations for China and Asian emerging economies for 2024, and upgraded its global economic growth forecast for this year by 0.2 percent to 3.1 percent due to the resilience of major economies such as China.
China's economic development is full of great potential. Four distinct advantages in terms of system, demand, supply and talent enable Chinese economy to better cope with various challenges in the future. The socialist market economy in systemic terms not only leverages the decisive role of the market in resource allocation but also enables the government to play a more effective role and pool all our resources to complete major missions.The supersize market in terms of demand provides a strong backing for economic development. With a population of over 1.4 billion and more than 400 million middle-income group, China's economy operates with greater vitality and attraction. The full-fledged industrial system in terms of supply enhances the resilience of economic development. China is the only country with industries across all categories in the U.N. industrial classification. The added value of China’s manufacturing industry accounts for around 30 percent of the global total, ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years.The abundant, high-caliber labor force and entrepreneurs in terms of human resources has generates a new "talent dividend". China has 240 million people with higher education, the largest number of R&D personnel globally, and over 200 million skilled workers, providing robust intellectual resources to support economic development.
China's high-quality development is full of vibrant energy. The economic structure has been further optimizedwith final consumption expenditure contributing 82.5% to economic growth in 2023. Value added of equipment manufacturing increased by 6.8%, and the investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services increased by 9.9% and 11.4% respectively. New quality productive forces is developing rapidly.The export value of “new trio,” namely, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, exceeded RMB 1 trillion for the first time growing by nearly 30%, and the output and sales of electric vehicles accounted for over 60 percent of the global share. China’s installed renewable energy capacity surpassed its thermal power capacity for the first time in history, and China accounted for over half of newly installed renewable energy capacity worldwide. With significant progress in building a modernized industrial system, a number of world-class innovations were made in major industries, and the high-quality development in China was pursued with solid steps.
China's integration with the world offers broad opportunities Today’s Chinese economy has been deeply integrated with the global economy. China will not close its door to the world, and it will only become more and more open. In 2023, China's total foreign trade reached RMB 41.8 trillion, expected to maintain its global first-place position for the seventh consecutive year; actualutilization of foreign investment amounted to RMB 1.1 trillion, and outbound direct investment reached RMB 9,169.9 billion increased by 16.7%; the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises reached nearly 54,000 , representing a growth of 39.7 percent year on year, and the rate of return on foreign direct investment in China was 9.1% in the past five years. The latest survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that around 50 percent of the surveyed companies identify China as a top three investment target. According to a survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, about 59 percent of surveyed companies view China as one of their top three major investment destinations. Furthermore, China is actively advancing its accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), steadily expanding institutional opening-up, and continuously connecting with the world at a higher level of openness, bringing more win-win cooperation opportunities to the world.
In recent years, with the care and strategic guidance of the leaders of China and Brunei, the two sides have further deepened political mutual trust and harvested fruitful cooperation outcomes across various fields. Chinese enterprises have become the main force in investing in Brunei, making significant contributions to promoting Brunei's industrial development, improving infrastructure, enhancing connectivity, and advancing economic diversification. In November 2023, President Xi Jinping met with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in San Francisco and reached important consensus, guiding the course for further development of the China-Brunei strategic cooperative partnership. We are willing to continue to strengthen the alignment of development strategies with Brunei, and consolidate the momentum of good cooperative development for the benefit of the two peoples
Currently, economies are facing considerable pressures amid struggling world economic recovery, China also faces some difficulties and challenges, but the Chinese economy’s strong resilience, ample potential and strong vitality and the fundamentals sustaining China’s sound economic growth in the long run stay unchanged. The number-one reality in today’s world is that all countries rise and fall together in the era of globalization. China cannot do without the world in achieving development, and the world needs China even more for development. Spreading pessimistic views on China will end up harming oneself, and misjudging China will result in missed opportunities. We have the confidence and capability to achieve long-term stable development and continuously bring new momentum and opportunities to the world, including Brunei, with China's new development, jointly writing a new chapter of open cooperation and mutual benefit.