Editor's note: The 2015 Beijing Forum for Emerging Market, held on Oct 19 and 20, brought together policymakers and former statesmen from Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as directors of international financial organizations. It is organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an institute dedicated to people-to-people diplomacy since 1954.
China comes to Africa as partner: former Kenya PM
China comes to Africa as a partner, and together they form a complementary relationship, said Raila Odinga, former prime minister of Kenya. China needs Africa's raw materials, while Africa needs China's capital and technology to develop. The collaboration benefits people on both sides, the former PM said at the 2015 Beijing Forum for Emerging Markets on Tuesday. China has a strategic interest in Africa, but it comes to help the continent as a cooperative partner, Odinga said, dismissing some comments comparing China's investment to colonizing. "It's a complementary friendship," Odinga said, adding that Africa gets paid at actual values. Read more |
Yuan's internalization relies on market force |
The internationalization of renminbi relies on market force, and will see an increasing trend for renminbi loans and China's outbound direct investment (ODI), said a central bank official on Monday. As the country has entered the stage of investing outward, renminbi-denominated loans and investments serve well to facilitate such demands, Yao Yudong, dean of Financial Research Institute at People's Bank of China, said at the 2015 Beijing Forum for Emerging Markets. In the first eight months this year, China's capital account saw a 59 percent increase in transactions. Read more |
6% growth over the next five years will be impressive, WB expert says |
It will be an enormous achievement for China if the world's second-largest economy can grow at 6 to 6.5 percent over the next five years, said Bert Hofman, World Bank country director for China, Mongolia and Korea, on Monday. "Aiming too high will put China's economy at risk," Hofman said at the Beijing Forum for Emerging Markets, as the country will roll out its 13th Five-Year Plan starting in 2016. China's GDP grew 6.9 percent in the third quarter, slightly beating expectations but marking the slowest growth since 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics announced. Read more |
Emerging markets can benefit from China's experience |
China |
Widening social gap is cause for concern |
As China's economy enters the "new normal", a key challenge is widening income gaps and the State needs to take measures to prevent the trend, says Li Shi, a senior scholar on income distribution at Beijing Normal University. China's Gini co-efficient, an index of the social gap, reached 0.73 as early as 2010 - not the highest but quite high measured against the rest of the world - he said, attributing it to widening gaps in property ownership and different income growth rates for different social groups. "Imagine you have a good house, in a good geographic position of the city," he said. "You might have got a good rent in the past several years while those without had to spend their income on it. That enlarges the income gap." Read more |
Peru has more to offer than mining, says ex-president |
Peru wants Chinese companies in its infrastructure construction sector to diversify their investment portfolio, rather than just focus on mining, according to Alejandro Toledo, the country's former president. "Peru is a country with incredible biodiversity. Yet it is also a geographically accidental land. If China can help build railways and roads to speed up transportation and lower costs, our agricultural products can be more profitable," Toledo told China Daily on Sunday. Toledo, who served as president from 2001 to 2006, is in Beijing to attend the two-day Beijing Forum for Emerging Markets which ends on Tuesday. Read more |