Bloomberg L.P. chairman Peter Grauer said Saturday that he sees great business opportunities in China and has confidence in the country's leadership to deliver development targets.
Based on the central leadership and the way the government performs against former plans, Grauer told Xinhua he believes China is able to execute the plan set for the next five years (2016-2020), which was unveiled this week.
The senior businessman was interested in three aspects of the plan: the continuing internationalization of the capital market and the currency, the continuing move from an investment-based economy to a consumption-led one, and having a stake in the ground for 6.5 percent-above GDP growth.
The size of China's economy will double by 2020 compared with 2010 if everything goes as planned, according to him.
"By any yardstick, the accomplishments will be pretty impressive," said Grauer.
He was "neutral to positive" about the Chinese economy -- "neutral" because of sluggish global recovery, and "positive" because of the Chinese leadership's focus on the five-year plan, which seems to be "feasible".
Grauer expected volatilities in the yuan's exchange rates as China will continue to liberalize its currency, but he believed it is just a near-term phenomena, which will not destabilize the long-term outlook of the economy.
"I have great confidence in China's leadership, particularly in the financial side of things," said the chairman of the data, news, analytics and trading platforms provider based in New York City.
According to him, there is a significant amount of pent-up demand for Bloomberg's business in China.
There is potential to be tapped as Bloomberg continues to expand relationship with its customers in the country, including big banks, asset management firms, hedge funds and insurers.
"The economic slowdown has not appreciably changed our outlook. China remains to be one of Bloomberg's fastest growing markets in the world," said Grauer.
He gave a speech to about 500 students in the University of International Business and Economics on Friday, and he was impressed by the quality of their questions and the level of their attention.
"We are very excited about the long-term prospects of China. It can bring great opportunities for growth," said Grauer.
