Huang Qifan

China's domestic demand and opening-up will be accelerated by the country's dual circulation strategy, experts say, adding that the strategy may propel the common prosperity drive, while attract more foreign investment to China.

During the International Finance Forum (IFF) 2021 Annual Meeting held on Saturday, Huang Qifan, chairman of the IFF Academic Committee, said that China's reliance on foreign trade or export will decline as the government is shifting focus to ramping up domestic consumption. 

After joining World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China's rate for foreign trade reliance decreased to 31.5 percent in 2020, from 64 percent in 2006, he said.

Huang also noted that, by 2035, China's current 400 million middle-income population will have doubled to 800 million, and 6 million of low-income population will be halved. "With that rise of middle-income population, China's rate for foreign trade reliance is expected to drop to 25 percent," said Huang. 

In addition, some existing issues in China's e economy which cause "bottlenecks" in industrial practices, low degree of market segment and high reliance on imported energy sources will be addressed by the development of "internal circulation", said Huang. 

On "external circulation", China will focus on both attracting foreign investment to China and increase outward investment to foreign countries and regions, said Huang. 

He pointed out that China has surpassed the US and became the largest market for foreign investment. China's outbound investment has rapidly expanded to up to $1 trillion from between 1980 to 2021.

Huang predicted that China's GDP will exceed 160 trillion yuan ($25.09 trillion) within the next 10 years and the country still has huge potential to develop. 

Global Times