As Premier Li Keqiang has said, China's huge population comprises a market of huge potential and expansion of domestic demand will continue to be one of the main priorities for the government, which will seek to stimulate consumer demand through reform of income distribution, further urbanization and energetically developing the service industry. Meanwhile, China will keep a reasonable scale of investment with priority given to energy conservation, environmental protection, railway projects in the central and western regions, and municipal facilities.

The Chinese economy will also continue to become more closely linked with the global economy. Over the past 30 years, the global economy has benefited from China's rapid development and the Chinese economy has benefited from the global economy. With globalization accelerating, China will continue its opening-up.

The slowing of China's economic growth in the largest emerging market and the world's second-largest economy has aroused worldwide concern. [Photo/Xinhua]

In addition to the introduction of foreign investment, the government is encouraging more enterprises to invest abroad, and it will continue to support the Doha round of trade negotiations, and work for the signing of bilateral free trade agreements with related countries, and will explore new ways to open China to the outside world.

Of course, the world economy still has uncertainties. The anticipation that some developed countries will exit their quantitative easing monetary policies has caused huge capital backflows out of emerging economies, resulting in stock market and foreign exchange fluctuations in many Asian countries. But the G20 summit in St. Petersburg delivered a positive and powerful signal that developed countries and emerging economies are committed to taking decisive actions so as to return to a path of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. China will play an important role in this process.

The author is a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 09/17/2013 page8)