China economic reform in focus at World Economic Forum

There's been much talk of China at the World Economic Forum-and a broad consensus among economists-that China's reforms aimed at rebalancing the country's economy away from trade and investment and towards domestic consumption-- will boost the global economy.

Eight sessions at the World Economic Forum focused on sustainable growth in China, which is deliberately taking a bit of steam out of its economic engine to avoid excess capacity and the sort of economic overreach Europe is still trying to untangle. The reforms are also aimed at ensuring China's growth does not exacerbate a growing divide between the rich and poor.

"If you don't address the issue of some people being too rich and other people staying in the poor area then that would be very detrimental to the development of the society". Gao Xiqing, President of China Investment Corporation said.

At this panel the economist who predicted the meltdown in the United States-- Nouriel Roubini-- predicted Chinese growth would have to slow to six percent for a healthy rebalancing of its economy though it was pointed out at least seven and a half percent would be needed to generate enough jobs for China's seven million annual college graduates.

"The focus on China intensified here at Davos this week after a surprise contraction in the country's manufacturing orders that led to a dip in stock markets around the world".

But the record number of Chinese delegates remained upbeat.

"As a young generation myself in China I feel it's very lucky to be born in China at this time". Kathy Gong, Founder and Chairwoman of KG INC, said.

"There's an increasing focus on the private sector, there's reforms in the financial services sector so that's going to benefit our industry so we're quite bullish on the next five to ten years". Ron Cao, Co-Founder of Lightspeed China Partners said.

The overall sentiment at the forum was that China's economy remains on the right track to maintain the slow but steady global recovery. But there was talk of plenty of risks ahead, from pollution to local government debt and many delegates believed China's economic future would only be assured once domestic consumption overtakes dependence on export driven growth.