China's growth offers something to draw upon for rest of world

The successful model of growth adopted in China offers a lesson to other economies throughout the world, while that growth offers opportunities for those willing to get local knowledge.

That is one of the messages Professor Li Haitao of the CKGSB Business School explained in an interview with Xinhua during his brief visit to Spain.

Professor Li was in Madrid to promote an MBA course offered by the school where he is Distinguished Chair Professor of Finance. He has a depth of experience, serving on the boards of the International Review of Finance and Management Science, as well as having held teaching posts at the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

However, most importantly, he is Chinese and has been able to witness the enormous changes in the country over the past 30 years.

"China has changed tremendously," he explained. "I grew up in China and 30 years ago it was a very poor country, the economy was on the verge of collapse, but in the last 30 years it has grown by around 10 percent each year and gone from being a small economy to the second largest economy in the world."

Li is optimistic about the prospect of the Chinese economy. "There is still huge potential for growth in China and in the next few decades it will be one of the motors for the growth of the world economy," he assured Xinhua.

"In this age of globalization the world has become multi-dimensional, there is not a single model of growth which works perfectly and even the free market economy has run into problems in the 2008 financial crisis," commented the professor.

"Now everyone is trying to find the best way to find inclusive growth, which does not just include rich people, but everyone," he said.

Li believes that Confucian philosophy gives China an advantage in this question as "we tend to emphasize the community rather than the individual."

The professor also remembered that although China's economy had been small before growth kicked in at the end of the 20th century, historically it had been an economic powerhouse.

"Our GPD was perhaps a third of the world GDP for 1,000 years," he pointed out, adding that the last 30 years of sustained growth have helped the confidence of the nation.

China's growth has opened up opportunities for the rest of the world, looking to invest in the country, but Li warned it was not as simple as travelling to the country and opening up an office.

"You have to know the culture, know the people and know the rules of the game. Europeans, Americans and Chinese all have their own way of doing business, so you have to know how to do business in China," he said, adding the best way to understand the Chinese business model was to work with local knowledge.

"It is very important to get local help, to get inside consulting and advisers on how to do it in China, rather than just going to a completely different, culture, country and economic environment," he said.