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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 09:48(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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China's Entry to WTO to Benefit Itself and RegionChina's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will not only contribute to the Chinese economy but also to the development of the rest of the region, Myoung-Ho Shin, vice president of the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday."China's entry to WTO will be a very historic event," Shin told a press conference held for the launch of the Asian development Outlook 2000. The outlook, an annual publication of the ADB which forecasts short-term economic trends in the region, projects that gross domestic product in China will rise by 6.5 percent in 2000. The outlook said China's cautious approach to liberalization of capital controls and a comfortable external financial position insulated it from the worst of the contagion effects of the Asian financial crisis. Jungsoo Lee, ADB chief economist, agreed with Shin, saying that China's entry into the WTO will have a good impact on itself as well as the rest of the world. "We have a very positive view on China's entry to WTO," he said. M. Quibria, assistant chief economist of the ADB, said that after China joins the WTO it will have access to foreign entities, which can bring in new technologies and new practices. These things will influence the efficiency of Chinese industry and help promote the competitiveness of Chinese products, he said. "China's entry to WTO will present challenges as well as opportunities to China's state-owned enterprises," David Green, ADB's senior economist, noted. To guarantee the survival of the state-owned enterprises after China's entry to the WTO, he suggested the Chinese government strengthen the social safety net. "What you face in the short term for industrial restructuring is unemployment. Pension reform is a very important aspect. It could help implementing labor restructuring and enterprise restructuring," he said. He also suggested the Chinese government improve the competitiveness of China's agricultural sector. "As China moves towards joining WTO, certain aspects of the agricultural sector will face competition from the world market," he said, expressing concern about the inland areas of China. However, he said, he was pleased to see that the Chinese government is shifting attention towards west, adding that the ADB will continue supporting the infrastructure sector in western China.
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