Expert sidepanel

Shuang Ding,

Senior China economist at Citi bank

Government's likely growth target for 2014: 70 percent chance of 7.5 percent

Main points:

The conference confirmed the leaders are very determined to push ahead with reform.

There is now a clear consensus on financial reform and there will be many announcements in 2014.

Setting up private banks and interest rate liberalization high on the agenda.

Ruchir Sharma,

Head of Emerging Markets and Global Macro at Morgan Stanley

Government's likely growth target for 2014: 7 to 7.5 percent

Main points:

7.5 percent growth is too high for a middle-income country.

China is still pumping out new credit to meet a growth target that no longer makes sense.

Market reforms will actually lower the risk of "collapsing bubbles".

Michael Power,

Global investment strategist at Investec Asset Management

Government's likely growth target for 2014: 7.5 percent

Main points:

The work conference indicated the government was going to surprise on the upside in terms of reform agenda.

China is not heading for a financial crisis similar to the West in 2008.

The government will not be able to avoid growing pains but the growth engine remains 20 million people migrating to the cities each year.

Louis Kuijs,

Chief China economist of the Royal Bank of Scotland

Government's likely growth target for 2014: 7.5 percent

Main points:

The work conference was relatively cautious and the agenda set out at the Third Plenum is likely to be a 10-year project.

Terms such as "proactive" fiscal policy and "prudent" monetary policy can be differently interpreted.

The government needs to take one or two bold steps to show they are serious about reform.

George Magnus,

Senior independent economic adviser at UBS

Government's likely growth target for 2014: 7.5 percent

Main points:

Economic conference came and went with a bit of a whimper and without setting clear agenda.

Financial reform leading to higher interest rates carries risks of major debt servicing problems for local government and SOEs.

It only took an interest rise to create a 20-year recession for Japan, so the government needs to be beware of butterfly-wing effects.

Junheng Li,

Founder of JL Warren Capital, a New York-based equity research company focusing on China

Government's likely growth target for 2014: N/A

Main points:

The work conference talked about caution on monetary and fiscal policy but it doesn't mean it is going to contract, and there has to be a question as to how much longer it can roll out investments.

Urbanization should be the result of other policy initiatives and not an end in itself.

The government talks of rebalancing the economy, but this can only come as a result of the right policy choices.

Miranda Carr,

Head of China research at NSBO, based in London

Government's likely growth target for 2014: 7 percent

Main points:

The conference demonstrated that reform is not going to be plain sailing.

Stability and steady development were promised but not major change.

There could be major financial sector reforms in 2014.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/03/2014 page15)