By Zweli Martin Dlamini

PRETORIA:The National Bureau of Statistics of China recently released economic data for the first three quarters and the indicators suggest that,China’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) grew to 5.2% year-on-year, making it the leader among the world's major economies. 

A number of foreign financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase, have raised their expectations for China’s economic growth for the whole year, projecting it will or might exceed 5%. 

But the International Finance Forum released a report predicting that, China will contribute as much as 32% to global economic growth this year and indeed, despite the sluggish world economic recovery and high global inflation, China's economy demonstrated strong resilience, great potential and enormous vitality, and remains a leader and main engine of global economic growth.

China’s macroeconomic policies are prudent and efficient and the Chinese government has introduced a series of powerful and effective macroeconomic policies to stabilise growth,enhance and improve the economy. 

It should be noted that, the Chinese government has developed a plan to stabilise growth in ten(10) key industries, accelerated efforts to implement thirty-one(31) economic policies and twenty-eight(28) measures to grow the private economy (which has contributed over eight per cent(80%) to employment in China's urban areas), and renewed,optimised and improved a number of policies on tax and fee reduction. 

But there many tools in Chinese policy “toolbox" have propelled the Chinese economy forward, through ups and downs. 

The economy also enjoys stronger trend of upgraded consumption, greater momentum of regional coordination while enhancing vitality of innovation.

The Chinese mega market unleashes great potential and with a population of over 1.4 billion, a per capita GDP of more than $12,000, and a middle-income group of over 400 million people that will exceed 800 million in the next 15 years, China is the world’s largest country in trade in goods, the second-largest consumer market and largest online retail market. 

It has been the world's second-largest import market for 14 consecutive years. 

As the major trading partner to more than 140 countries and regions, China is a world leader in terms of attracted foreign capital and outward investment. 

But indicators in the economy suggest that in the last twelve(12) months, Chinese domestic demand continued to expand,with consumption contributing 83.2% to economic growth, the mega market “has grown continuously” providing more opportunities for the rest of the world. 

In the first three(3) quarters, China’s foreign trade expanded steadily, with total imports and exports exceeding 30 trillion yuan and, in the next five(5) years, the imports and exports of China’s trade in goods and services are expected to exceed $32-trillion and $5-trillion respectively. 

But China has demonstrated readiness to open up its huge market of 1.4 billion people to South Africa and other countries who are diplomatic partners and this will result to more minerals, agricultural and other high-quality products from South Africa making their way into the Chinese market.

The industrial system is reasonable and complete, China's manufacturing industry has ranked first in the world in terms of scale for thirteen(13)consecutive years. 

Last August,China became the world’s largest exporter of automobiles and as result, Chinese-brand cars made in South Africa have made their way into thousands of households. 

As the only country in the world that owns all the categories in the United Nations(UN) industrial classification system, China has strong industrial organisation capacity and supply-chain resilience. 

Furthermore, China plays an important role in the global industrial division of labour and supply chain system. 

In the first three(3) quarters, the investment in the manufacturing industry grew by 6.2%, and investment in the high-tech manufacturing industry and high-tech service industry grew by 11.3% and 11.8% respectively, as a result, a total of 172 million kilowatts of renewable energy were newly installed, an increase of 93% year-on-year.

China has the world’s largest and most complete talent resource, with the total number of skilled personnel reaching 220 million, and the total number of research and development personnel ranking first in the world. 

The demographic dividend still exists, and the talent dividend is showing new advantages, China trained 60 million engineers from 2000 to 2020. 

But a large number of bold and innovative entrepreneurs have been cultivated in China, forming a team of Chinese entrepreneurs who keep up with the times, showcase national characteristics and meet world standards. 

These Chinese entrepreneurs have become a dynamic force in building a modernised economic system and driving high-quality development and the universal truth is that economies fluctuate.

When observing the Chinese economy, focus should be directed not only on its short-term fluctuations, but also its long-term development. 

Even though some of the Chinese economic indicators have showed short-term fluctuations last year, but the macro-policies are forward-looking and create synergy. 

The Chinese economic operation continues to improve, and the long-term sound economy has maintained its trend. 

As a result, China has the confidence, ability and strength to cope with all kinds of risks and challenges. 

The giant ship of the Chinese economy will ride out the winds and waves towards a brighter future, and make even greater contributions to the world economy.