WEF expects to know more about fresh opportunities from China

The upcoming World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2015 in Davos is looking forward to knowing more about the latest opportunities offered by China, which plays a greater and greater role as a driver for global economic growth, experts said.[Special coverage]

Development of China, which is undergoing a slowdown in economic growth, has caught lots of attention from Davos due to its impact at the global stage. Some experts believed China will continue generating opportunities to the world economy.

Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Center for International Political Economy (ECIPE), noted that China is an important engine of the world economy, and the more China reforms its economy, the greater its contribution to the world economy will be.

"China is going through a structural growth slowdown, but it is an anticipated slowdown and one that is largely controlled by economic and political authorities," Erixon said.

Talking about a new role of China at the global level, Deputy Italian Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda said China is getting a more mature role in world trade now than in the past, and this is a very reason he pushed for the start of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with China when he chaired a EU trade ministers' meeting in November 2014 in Brussels.

Calenda made his remarks in an interview with Xinhua before the upcoming WEF meeting, scheduled for Jan. 21-24 at Davos in southeastern Switzerland which will explore solutions to major world challenges under the theme "The New Global Context."

Calenda underlined again the positive role China is playing in the world, saying that China is playing a more constructive role in the world governance.

On the role of China as investment partner, the Italian deputy minister said that "on bilateral relations between Italy and China, Chinese investment are growing and the cooperation with China is becoming increasingly positive."

As investment is a key point for the world economy, many experts found various initiatives from China. In a latest WEF report called Global Risks 2015, experts highlighted that China, together with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, have set up a new development bank.

Meanwhile, together with other countries, China created the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for the Asia-Pacific region.

China has played a more and more important regional role to impact the world, as highlighted and praised by the WEF report which noted: "Much as a retreat from global multilateralism is worrisome, stronger regional multilateralism is not necessarily a bad thing, as regional solutions to regional problems can be consistent with global governance structures."

On the outlook of China's economy, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, has said that China is attracting more and more global attention given its growing weight in global matters and reaffirmed his optimistic expectations on China's economy.

Schwab made the remarks in a written interview with Xinhua and reiterated his optimistic expectations on the outlook of China's economy.

"Even with 7 percent growth -- the government's target for 2015 -- China is likely to remain the largest contributor to global economic growth. That is impressive, considering many of China's key trade partners, including Europe and Russia, are experiencing sluggish growth. It is also a sign of the strength of China's growing internal demand," said Schwab.

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at the consulting firm IHS, expects to see more stimulus, noting China has taken actions to avoid economic hard landing and "the Chinese government is in a balancing act of trying to squeeze out some of the excesses of the debt-fueled property and industrial capacity expansion."