China’s economy is going through a transition to a new, more sustainable model and is helping stabilize the world economy by means of securing a supply chain and helping less-developed countries, said a high-ranking executive at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) on Friday.
Noting a tenancy among global investors to over-scrutinize economic data coming out of China, Benjamin Hung Pi-cheng, Standard Chartered's CEO for Asia, told China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an interview on the sidelines of this year's Bund Summit in Shanghai that a longer-term view of the country's trajectory is more pertinent.
"I think there's little point on micro analyzing every nano-KPI that comes out. We have to look at where China is moving and what it's transitioning into. I think near-term, acknowledging there will be some softness. I think this is fundamentally due to slower consumer demand, and that itself is driven by the softer sentiment arising from the whole CRE (commercial real estate) correction. That I think they're going through a process that will take time. Fundamentally, I still think consumption is a huge engine for powering Chinese growth in the next chapter alongside supply chain reforms, shifting to new economy. I don't think we should over-worry about it. We're going through a transition, hopefully, to a more sustainable forward future," Hung said.
The bank executive also stressed that China's large-scale supply chain is playing an important role in stabilizing world economy, noting it would be impossible to replace in a short period of time.
"Fundamentally, the whole world having gone through perhaps two or three years ago, huge amounts of supply chain disruption -- most of the players would want to see resilience, resilience in how goods are delivered from one part of the world to another to make sure there as little disruption as possible. If you are an importer from Europe or from the U.S., it will take time for them to diversify and change. Because that current chain that China provides, it's very, very high quality, very cost efficient, and producing with massive scale," he said.
Speaking of the just-concluded 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, Hung said the fruitful outcomes of the summit show that China is actively supporting the development of African countries, which took a harder hit in the COVID-19 pandemic in previous years.
"Unfortunately, I think COVID-19 has been very regressive where the rich countries became richer, the poor countries became poorer. So I think we need to have also a phase to help support those who were a little bit challenged by COVID-19 to help bring them up. And what was discussed and announced yesterday, which is very good of China, offering the tariff-free to all the Least Developed Countries, many of which are in Africa. That's fundamentally very, very good. That will help support the development of the African nations," he said.
In his keynote speech at the FOCAC summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China will give all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) having diplomatic relations with China, including 33 countries in Africa, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines.
China's economy going through transition to more sustainable model: SCB executive
The 2024 Kazakhstan Tourism Year in China officially closed on Wednesday in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, with fruitful results achieved in promoting travel between the two countries. An international tourism forum was held within the framework of the closing ceremony. About 300 people, including Kazakhstan's Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports Yerkinbayev Yerzhan Malikovich, Chinese Consul General in Almaty Jiang Wei, and representatives from tourism and media of both countries, attended the event.
Yerkinbayev said that Kazakhstan plans to expand passenger capacity at land ports connecting the countries and increase investment in tourism infrastructure construction to attract more Chinese tourists.
"We are seeing more and more Chinese tourists coming to Kazakhstan, so we should improve tourism infrastructure and not let these visitors down. Today at the forum we announced that we will open new border crossings and improve the facilities at existing ones. Some improvement work has already started this year, making these crossings convenient not only for the clearance of goods but also for people," he said.
"The leaders of the two countries have announced that 2025 will be the Chinese Tourism Year in Kazakhstan. We are looking forward to the series of activities planned by our Chinese colleagues, and will fully support every event to be held in Kazakhstan next year," he added.
Jiang, the Chinese Consul General in Almaty, said that all-round and high-level China-Kazakhstan tourism cooperation has been launched, which will inject new impetus into promoting mutual understanding between the two peoples and building a more meaningful and dynamic China-Kazakhstan community with a shared future.
"Since the launch of the Kazakhstan Tourism Year event, departments at all levels of the two countries, especially the tourism departments, have held promotion meetings, forums, and tourism exhibitions in both countries, providing tourists with a variety of colorful activities. Such events have opened up windows for promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries and enhancing mutual learning between civilizations," Jiang said.
At the closing ceremony, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan presented the "Most Influential International Media Cooperation Award" to CCTV-4 Channel of China Media Group (CMG), commending the three-part documentary "Bond with China—For the Common Dream" produced in cooperation with the Khabar Media Group of Kazakhstan.
The program was launched in July this year at a China-Kazakhstan cultural exchange event organized by CMG, and was aired simultaneously on China's CCTV-4, the TV channels under the Khabar Media Group, and Atameken TV.
Daniyel Serzhanuly, deputy chairman of the board for the Kazakh Tourism National Company, said that the documentary showcases the culture and beautiful scenery of Kazakhstan to Chinese audiences. He expressed hope for deepened cooperation in media between the two countries.
"Among the more than 30 cooperation projects implemented under the tourism year program, there are media cooperation projects. The most successful one is the three-part documentary about Kazakhstan produced in cooperation with CCTV-4. The program was launched before the SCO Summit, which showed the tourism potential of Kazakhstan to Chinese audiences and improved Chinese people's understanding of Kazakhstan," he said.
Two sub-forums and a B2B tourism business negotiation meeting were also held within the framework of the closing ceremony.
2024 Kazakhstan Tourism Year in China closes with fruitful results
