China's medium-high growth target realistic, reassuring -- experts

BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- China has garnered global attention with a freshly announced economic growth target for 2022 at around 5.5 percent.

The new target represents a medium-high rate of growth given China's large economic aggregate, and demonstrates the country's ability to move proactively, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said while delivering the government work report at this year's "two sessions."

Experts worldwide generally believe that this target takes global risk factors into full account and is in line with China's economic development reality. It also signals that China is committed to high-quality development and its economic prospects are expected to be stable.

REALISTIC TARGET

Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics at the Chicago-based Illinois Institute of Technology, said that China's economic growth target of around 5.5 percent is "very realistic," noting the possibility that China might overshoot the number.

China is a major economy with healthy fundamentals, Tourk said, adding China's steady growth is extremely vital to global growth and bodes well for the rest of the world.

John Pang, a senior fellow at New York-based Bard College, said China's growth is modest by its standards and the very realistic number reflects an environment of heightened risk and global instability.

Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business, said that many Latin American economists have full confidence in China's economic performance in 2022, noting that the set of reforms and policies the Chinese government has taken can help it navigate the changes and potential risks in the external environment.

HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT

Against the backdrop of a complex and volatile global landscape and a sluggish economic recovery overshadowed by multiple challenges, China's GDP growth target reflects its determination to pursue high-quality development, said Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of the leading Thai bank Kasikornbank.

China is fully aware of the importance of high-quality development as its economy continues to expand, he said.

Amid rising protectionism, Chinese enterprises need to strengthen their capabilities for research and development, develop core technologies, enhance industrial upgrading, and adhere to the strategy of promoting innovation-driven development so as to make continuous progress in all areas, Choi added.

Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said he believes that China's target is pragmatic, since the country has paid more attention to the quality of development than simply to the speed, noting that China's future growth will also give a boost to global recovery and development.

STABLE OUTLOOK

China is a huge market, a leading investment destination, and a manufacturing heavyweight, and therefore, renewed Chinese demand will lift up commodity exporters, said Lucio Blanco Pitlo, a research fellow at the Philippine think tank Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation.

He also said that China's growth target sends strong signals for global trade and supply chains.

Frederick Kempe, president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, said that Beijing has a lot of understanding of the current situation, and a "true understanding of the need for stability."