Beijing Diary: China's Reforms Create New Opportunities And Possibilities

Beijing Diary By Samantha Tan Chiew Ting Bernama's correspondent in Beijing Samantha Tan Chiew Ting shares her take on China. BEIJING, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- As the year 2015 comes to an end in a week's time, China too like Malaysia is concerned with the economic outlook for the new year 2016. Analysts anticipate China's economy to slow down next year thus disrupting global trade and hamper growth with the severe impact felt especially by the emerging markets as well as corporations. China today is a global economic giant, thus when it sneezes the world catches a cold. Being fully aware of the challenges ahead, the country has taken pre-emptive reforms to cushion the slowdown and stimulate growth. These measures in fact open new opportunities and possibilities for the whole world. CHINA'S COUNTER MEASURES China among others is banking on two approaches, namely its five year 2016-2020 development plan and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative. The five-year development plan is aimed at creating a more sustainable and balanced development as well as doubling its 2010 GDP and per capita income by 2020. From 1979 to 2010 China's average annual GDP growth was 9.91 percent, reaching a historical high of 15.2 percent in 1984 and a record low of 3.8 percent in 1990. However, sustaining its economy to ensure stability at the global front and on the other hand supporting growth in the region pose a serious challenge for China. China's economy currently is at a slower pace but remains in rude health. It will take time for the country to digest industrial over-capacity, restructure the economy and shift to an innovation-driven mode. So the key for the next level of growth is innovation, like I mentioned in my diary piece a fortnight ago. POSITIVE FOR MALAYSIA? Other nations too stand to benefit from China's remedial measures. For Malaysia, there could be some positive impact next year riding on China's growth. The recent visit of China's Premier Li Keqiang to Malaysia took the bilateral ties to another level. Besides trade and investment, cooperation in other sectors namely tourism and education were also strengthened. This could provide a positive impact as well as mitigate the effects of a possible slowdown of the Malaysian economy as China would buy more Malaysian government bonds and give a US$7.71 billion (50 billion yuan) quota to invest in Chinese stocks. Malaysia can earn more from China, as Chinese tourists love to visit Malaysia. To attract more tourists from China, authorities at both sides have worked hard to woo Chinese airlines to fly to Malaysia with Air China resuming its Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route in October after suspending the route three years ago. As for education, Xiamen University's campus in Sepang, the first overseas campus set up by a renowned Chinese university, is ready to enroll students in February 2016. Built at a cost of US$302.01 million (RM1.3 billion) the campus marked the healthy bilateral relations between Malaysia and China. So now we just have to wait and see how things transpire in 2016 and whether China's dragon economy will remain fiery in the new year or will start sputtering. --BERNAMA