Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks with global corporate leaders at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, Liaoning province on September 9, 2015. (Photo provided to China Daily)
On the afternoon of 9 September, Premier Li Keqiang met with domestic and foreign business representatives at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the New Champions held at the Dalian International Conference Center. Following is the transcript:
Li Keqiang: Professor Schwab,ladies and gentlemen, let me first send my congratulations on the opening of the ninth Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian. It's good to see so many familiar faces and old friends in the audience. As the place is so packed today, it's difficult for me to walk into the audience and shake hands with each one of you. But I do appreciate the interest you have shown in China by coming to the meeting and your participation in China's modernization process. I am very happy to meet you here, because each time I come to the annual meeting, I get some new food for thought. The theme of the annual meeting this year –Charting a New Course for Growth–is highly relevant. I look forward to sharing my views and observations with you on this topic.
Pau Polman, CEO of Unilever: We are all following the world economy very closely. In our brief discussion just now, you mentioned the slowing down of global growth, including China itself. What you said is very important, making us optimistic in the future of the Chinese economy. You also mentioned the need to find new drivers for growth. What are the new drivers specifically? As China takes over the chairmanship of the G20 next year, what agenda have you set for the G20 summit? How could this agenda bring about more sustainable, equitable and longer-term growth?
Li Keqiang: It has been seven years since the global financial crisis broke out. Global growth remains sluggish. It's true that the Chinese economy has come under downward pressure. I know that you all follow the Chinese economy very closely. The "shape" of the economy is that there have been some ups and downs, but the underlying trend remains positive. In the first half of this year, the Chinese economy expanded by 7 percent, which is one of the highest among the world's major economies.
I have said on several occasions, a GDP growth that secures sufficient employment, increase in household income in step with GDP growth and improvement in the environment would be one that we can live with.In the first half of this year, surveyed urban unemployment rate was around 5.1 percent. And we added over 7 million urban jobs. All these show that the Chinese economy has been running within the proper range.
Talking about new drivers of economic growth, we are encouraging mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Thanks to business registration reform and other reforms as well as mass entrepreneurship and innovation, over 10,000 new market entities are registered on an average daily basis since last year. There are also positive changes in the economic structure. For instance, consumption is contributing about 60 percent to China's economic growth. The service sector now accounts for almost 50 percent of GDP. Growth of high-tech industries is over 10 percent. All these are the changes we have been promoting, and we feel heartened by these developments.
There has been overall stability in China's economic performance, despite certain moderation in speed. The overall trend is positive, yet there are also difficulties to overcome. We are pressing ahead with structural reform to advance structural adjustment. As the traditional growth drivers get replaced by new ones, it is only natural to see fluctuations in some of the economic indicators on a monthly or quarterly basis. This has happened this year, last year and the year before last as well. The economy is still running within the proper range. We will stick to the basic orientation of our macroeconomic policy. We will continue to advance reform and opening-up, and promote structural adjustment. We will also step up ranged-based, targeted and discretionary macro regulation to maintain steady economic growth within the proper range. All these will create enabling conditions for structural reform and adjustment.
